SAIC announces CEO transition

Toni Townes-Whitley to succeed Nazzic S. Keene in October

Published May 19, 2023 by Robyn Sidersky

Nazzic S. Keene, CEO of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), will retire in October, the Reston-based Fortune 500 contractor announced Thursday. She will be succeeded by former Microsoft Corp. executive Toni Townes-Whitley, also formerly president of CGI Federal.

Townes-Whitley will become CEO-elect on June 12, taking the helm of a company exceeding $7 billion in annual revenue, with more than 26,000 employees. She will also replace Keene on SAIC’s board. Keene will remain CEO until Oct. 1, and then will stay on as a special adviser to Townes-Whitley and SAIC through Feb. 2, 2024.

Townes-Whitley, a 35-year global technology veteran, most recently served as president of U.S. Regulated Industries at Microsoft, where she led the company’s U.S. sales strategy to drive digital transformation within the public sector and regulated commercial industries. Before she joined Microsoft, she led CGI Federal and held management roles at Unisys Corp.

Townes-Whitley serves on boards including Nasdaq, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Thurgood Marshall Fund, Partnership for Public Service, and the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative. She earned her bachelor’s degree in public policy and economics from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and certifications from Wharton Executive Education, New York University and the Performance Management Institute.

“We thank Nazzic for her tremendous contributions and dedication to SAIC, which resulted in greater opportunities for our employees, improved outcomes for our customers and increased value for our shareholders,” SAIC Board Chair Donna Morea said in a statement. “The board’s selection of her successor is the result of a thorough and thoughtful CEO succession planning process to identify the right leader to accelerate the momentum built over the four years of Nazzic’s leadership. Toni is an innovative and collaborative leader whose success in digital transformation and leading-edge technology integration makes her our clear choice to lead SAIC’s next chapter.”

Keene, who had previously been an executive at CGI Inc., joined SAIC in 2012 as senior vice president for corporate strategy and planning and became chief operating officer in 2017. She became CEO and was elected to SAIC’s board of directors in 2019. Keene serves on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and is on ADP’s board of directors as well as Inova Health System’s board of trustees. She previously served on the boards of Wolf Trap and Capital Partners for Education, and she was an executive committee member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, National Capital Region.

During Keene’s tenure as CEO, SAIC acquired Unisys Federal for $1.2 billion in 2020, adding 2,000 employees to SAIC and bringing the company’s cloud migration and other services to the company. This April, SAIC won an $889 million defense contract to develop and implement an information technology solution for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s system. And in May, SAIC closed the sale of its logistics and supply chain management business to ASRC Federal Holding Company LLC for $350 million.

“I have known, respected and admired Toni for years and am thrilled to welcome her to our SAIC family,” Keene said in a statement. “I am proud of all we have accomplished for our customers and colleagues during my tenure at SAIC, and I am excited to work alongside Toni in the coming months to ensure we don’t miss a beat in driving sustained growth and performance.”

    Subscribe to Virginia Business.   Get our daily e-newsletter.