Tim Reardon on Lockheed’s Recent Reorg, More Than $1B Cyber Business and Int’l Expansion

Tim Reardon serves as vice president and general manager of Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin‘s defense & intelligence solutions business units, a 15,000-employee organization.

The 15-year Lockheed veteran was most recently the president of the information systems and global solutions-national unit and has previously served as the president of the former IS&GS-global unit and the enterprise integration group.

Reardon, a 10-year CIA veteran, recently caught up with ExecutiveBiz about the opening of Lockheed’s cybersecurity centers of excellence, a recent structural reorganization at the company and international expansion.

ExecutiveBiz: What were some of the incentives behind your efforts to recently reorganize some of your operations?

Tim Reardon: We were seeing a convergence in the solution space across our defense and intelligence customers, and we felt that merging our defense business and our intelligence business into one integrated national security enterprise would facilitate the development and delivery of best-of-breed, affordable solutions to all of our national security customers.

ExecutiveBiz: How are you positioning Lockheed to take advantage of market opportunities?

Tim Reardon: We’re focused on investing significant R&D into differentiating technologies in our core market sets — cyber solutions, space ground solutions, C4ISR, enterprise information technology, situational awareness, and advanced analytics. It’s really all about developing the differentiated capabilities that will enable our customers to accomplish their missions in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

For example, our innovations in cyber technology are driving rapid growth and great success in our cyber business segment, which is now generating more than a billion dollars a year in revenue. In the C4ISR market space, our command, control, battle management and communications (C2BMC) efforts are enabling reliable and rapidly adapting defense capabilities across the ballistic missile defense system. And across our situational awareness solutions, we’re developing new geospatial visualization tools as we look to have the most widely‑used and rapidly‑growing capabilities supporting the international security community.

 

ExecutiveBiz: What’s your key to success in a competitive market that’s facing leaner budgets?

Tim Reardon: Despite contracting budgets, there’s still opportunity for success and growth if you can differentiate yourself from the competition with superior, cost effective solutions laser focused on the customers’ mission requirements. Given our reputation for exceptional performance in the DOD and intelligence mission space, many of our customers aren’t aware of the fact that we’re also the number one information technology provider to the U.S. government.

We’re in a unique position where we can leverage our vast information technology expertise and our deep understanding of our customers’ missions to provide unrivaled information technology solutions in support of national security missions.

 

ExecutiveBiz: What are some of the offerings that you have for the U.K., Australia, Middle East and other international areas GovCon companies are targeting?

Tim Reardon: Our international offerings closely parallel our core capabilities developed in support of U.S. national security customers. Primary focus areas include integrated air and missile defense, cyber solutions, space ground solutions, C4ISR, enterprise information technology, situational awareness, and advanced analytics.

ExecutiveBiz: How do you manage 15,000 people across such a geographically diverse workforce?

Tim Reardon: As a large global enterprise we’re experienced at operating virtually in every imaginable time zone. We make it a priority to have strong local leadership at all of our diverse locations, and these local leaders are well versed in our collective priorities, investments, and capabilities across the business.

 

ExecutiveBiz: Tell us about your work with the cyber center at Fort Meade and its impact.

Tim Reardon: We invest in creating value‑added cyber intelligence centers with many of our customers both domestically and internationally. In all cases, the idea is to work with our customers to advance state‑of‑the‑art cyber research. Any type of investment we can make that works towards improving cyber defense is always value-added to our customers. The Cyber Center of Excellence in Fort Meade is focused on the unique cyber requirements of the national security community.

We’ve also invested in a Cyber Center of Excellence in the U.K. that is focused on developing and providing cyber security solutions to a growing number of government and commercial customers across the U.K. and Europe.

 

ExecutiveBiz: How did your time in the CIA help prepare you for your current role?

Tim Reardon:  Most importantly it gave me a first-hand appreciation for the daunting challenges our customers face across the national security community.  I also grew to appreciate what an incredible advantage advanced technology can provide in support of the mission.

ExecutiveBiz: While you were in public service, how much did you know about the government contracting industry and how has your perspective changed?

Tim Reardon: I had limited visibility into the full spectrum of industry’s capabilities when I was working in the government. I was aware of the capabilities that were involved in the missions I was supporting, but I didn’t have a full appreciation of the best way to leverage industry in support of the mission.  Now that I’m on the industry side, my focus has been ensuring my business remains agile, efficient, and forward thinking in support of our customers’ rapidly evolving priorities and requirements.

ExecutiveBiz: Moving forward into 2014, what are you most excited about?

Tim Reardon: I’m energized about the potential generated by merging our DOD and intelligence businesses into one integrated global enterprise.  I am confident that this merger will afford us an unprecedented opportunity to deliver differentiated, affordable, best of breed technology solutions in support of a broad range of our customers’ national security missions.