Salient CRGT names Ferrando CEO, Nolan board chair

Salient CRGT said Tuesday it has promoted Tom Ferrando from president to CEO and also appointed Phil Nolan, former CEO of Camber and Stanley, to chairman of the board of directors.

Both appointments take effect immediately as now-former CEO Brad Antle has decided to transition out of the company, Salient CRGT said. Antle has led the Fairfax, Virginia-based government IT contractor as CEO since its August 2015 formation out of the merger-of-equals of Salient Federal Solutions and CRGT.

That merger created an almost $375 million-annual revenue business solidly in the middle tier. Salient CRGT has since climbed the $500 million mark through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions, including the most recent deal for health IT outfit Triple-i closed last year.

Antle was president and CEO of Salient Federal prior to the merger and Ferrando was CEO of CRGT at the time. Ferrando is also a former president and chief operating officer of another Salient CRGT predecessor company in Cherry Road Technologies.

Private equity firms Bridge Growth Partners and Frontenac jointly own Salient CRGT. Bridge Growth acquired CRGT in January 2015 and Frontenac had backed Salient since the latter’s 2009 founding.

Nolan was more recently CEO of Camber and led that company through its 2016 sale to Huntington Ingalls Industries, which subsequently launched a standalone government services segment. Camber was a $364 million-revenue government IT contractor at the time.

Prior to that, Nolan was CEO of Stanley, where he led that company through its 2006 initial public offering and growth to a $1 billion-revenue company with 5,000 employees. CGI Group acquired Stanley in 2010 for $1.2 billion.