Northrop's new IT chief promises double-digit growth

The new leader of Northrop Grumman Information Technology intends to maintain the company's double-digit growth, fill thousands of job vacancies and pool resources from the parent company's other sectors to strengthen the IT division's offerings.James O'Neill, who took over May 1 as president of the company's IT division, told Washington Technology that he wants to maintain annual growth of at least 10 percent for the $5 billion IT sector. Northrop Grumman's total revenue for 2003 was $26.2 billion.Another priority is to fill more than 4,000 job vacancies in his sector with technically qualified workers, most of whom will need security clearances, O'Neill said. At present, Herndon, Va.-based Northrop Grumman IT employs 9,000 of the parent company's 123,000 employees.O'Neill's third goal is to collaborate with other divisions his company to offer their technologies as part of the IT division's solutions and services, he said, adding that the IT division is very involved with the company's electronic systems and ship systems sectors. Northrop Grumman's other sectors are mission systems, integrated systems and space technology."The other five sectors have lots of technologies that we can take, repackage and sell to state and local governments and commercial customers, as well as to our traditional Defense Department and intelligence base," O'Neill said.O'Neill replaces Herb Anderson, who retired this year after 10 years as president of the company's IT sector.Since 2002, O'Neill had been the president of TASC Inc., a unit within Northrop Grumman IT, where he oversaw development and customization of products and services for federal and commercial customers. In early 2003, he was appointed president of the company's IT Computing Systems business unit for six months until a successor was hired.Before joining Northrop Grumman, O'Neill was senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Services Industries, where he was in charge of the company's sales and consulting groups in the worldwide telecommunications and utilities sectors. Before working for Oracle, O'Neill was an officer at Lucent Technologies Inc. and president of its government solutions business unit.