BigBear hires IBM vet as new chief executive
By
Ross Wilkers
This transition follows a prior reworking of the artificial intelligence company's senior leadership structure.
BigBear.ai is getting a new chief executive in the wake of several other leadership changes at the artificial intelligence company that coincide with several other corporate transformation initiatives.
Amanda “Mandy” Long will join BigBear as CEO on Wednesday after nearly 15 years across various technology verticals and most recently at IBM. She succeeds Reggie Brothers, who is stepping down from that position and his seat on the board of directors.
Brothers will move to an operating partner role at AE Industrial Partners, the private equity firm that helped take BigBear public in 2021 and is still a substantial holder of stock in. He will also be an adviser to BigBear, the company said Tuesday.
Columbia, Maryland-headquartered BigBear formed through a combination of four businesses held by AE Industrial that included NuWave Solutions, which Brothers was CEO of prior to the integrations and subsequent public listing.
This transition to a new CEO is the most recent leadership move of several for BigBear over the second half of this calendar year, a period that has already seen the departures of its now former chief operating and technology officers.
BigBear also undertook a 7% reduction of its workforce as part of several corporate transformation initiatives in order to better preserve cash and achieve more of what the company has called "operational efficiencies through continued integration."
Most recently at IBM, Long was vice president of that company's IT automation business in addition to VP of the integration and application platform unit.
Her five-year stint at IBM also included roles such as general manager for the IBM Watson Health Provider Analytics team, as well as chief product and strategy officer for Artificial Intelligence for IBM Watson.