Some Personal Information
I am presently the Director of Engineering Programs at Raytheon’s Space and Airborne Systems (formerly Hughes Aircraft), in El Segundo, California, where I am responsible for enhancing the systems engineering aspects of Raytheon defense products and DoD weapon systems, and in assisting Raytheon corporate-wide in the implementation of CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and other systems engineering improvements. I have a 40-plus-year career involving Supportability, Integrated Logistics Support, Automated Test, Systems Engineering and Program Management within Industry. Prior to joining Raytheon (then Hughes Aircraft) in 1996 I served as Group Vice-President at ManTech International Corporation, based in McLean VA, where I was responsible for a number of Support programs for defense systems and for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. My actual career began at Westinghouse Electric Corporation (now Northrop-Grumman ESS) in Baltimore MD, where I held a variety of positions in radar, logistics design, logistics management, and program management including Department Manager for Logistics Support, and eventually Manager of Programs for Westinghouse Electronic Systems Division.
It was in this role of department management and program management where I developed the kind of leadership skills needed to lead a large and complex organization, often matrixed, to achieve successful results.
I am also the founder and current Chairman of the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) Systems Engineering Division (SE Div, 1996), as well as a founding member of their Automatic Test Committee (1974). The Systems Engineering Division performs numerous studies and analyses for the Department of Defense, and it recognized as a very effective and essential activity for the Department.
I am also the Industry Sponsor of a continuous process improvement initiative known as CMMI, for Capability Maturity Model Integration, and I serve as the Chair of the CMMI Steering Group. CMMI is the latest iteration on process improvement for product design, including hardware, software, systems engineering, and program management. It has been adopted by thousands of defense and commercial organizations since its initial release in 2001. The Department of Defense (US) as well as many other governments such as the United Kingdom and Australia are highly dependent on CMMI to improve the engineering and management processes in the contractors they select to design and build the latest technology systems.
