Toni Townes-Whitley Appointed CEO of SAIC

Toni Townes-Whitley has been named CEO of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), based in Reston, Virginia. This is a remarkable appointment since she joins TIAA's Thasunda Brown Duckett as one of just two Black women presently running Fortune 500 businesses.

Townes-Whitley's appointment also represents a rare case of a woman CEO passing the torch to another woman at a publicly traded firm of this scale.

SAIC primarily offers technology and engineering services to different government agencies in the United States, notably the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, and space organizations such as the Space Force.

Townes-Whitley is well-suited to manage SAIC given her history, which includes serving as Microsoft's President of US Regulated Industries and her family's military links. She presented her past experience, emphasizing the significance of scalability and implementing commercial best practices in regulated sectors.

She hopes to increase SAIC's market value, distinguish the firm, establish an enterprise attitude, and explain the brand identity in her first 100 days.

Townes-Whitley also highlighted the rarity of a female-to-female CEO handoff, praising the SAIC board, organizational culture, and the executives involved.

As a female CEO and an African American female forging new ground in national security leadership, she emphasized the necessity of diversity and developing a pipeline of varied talent in corporate America.