View non-flash version
10 MN December 2010 MarineNews spoke with Rick Biben, Chief Executive and President of Gibbs and Cox, Inc., about his background in the industry, the state of the naval design market, how his company is investing for the future and technological and design advancements in the field. What is your background in the industry? After college (Bryant University, 1972, BS Management) I went into the U.S. Peace Corps (Ecuador, 1972 – 1975) for about three years. I left the government and entered the contractor community in 1979. I was with Syscon Corporation from 1981 through late in 1999. The company changed ownership a couple times until Northrop Grumman eventually purchased it. I moved for the company from the Washington, DC area to the Newport, R.I. area in 1985, and then moved from R.I. on to San Diego in 1997. As a result I learned a great deal about a very broad customer and technology marketplace from ASW through C4ISR, from platform engineering to modeling, simulation and training systems to informa- tion/network security. In 1999 I was recruited to another company, then named Anteon Corporation (now part of General Dynamics), as Sr. Vice President and Group Manager to lead their west coast operations. I stayed with Anteon until early 2004 when I moved over to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and led their Naval Information Systems organization in San Diego until late 2006. In December of 2006 I was recruited by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as the Sr. Vice President of their Integrated Systems and Solutions organization. In mid 2008, SAIC asked me to move back to the east coast/Washington DC area and manage a size- able organization with the objective of business expansion and diversity. My greatest accomplishment in that role was to transform a large management team, which had been reporting to as many as seven separate managers, into a cohesive and very successful team — one that I know will continue to be successful for years to come. I was honored to have been selected as the Chief Executive and President of Gibbs and Cox, Inc. this past July and have had a really great experience meeting our employees, customers and industry partners over just the last few months or so. What is the outlook for your market right now? The market continues to evolve, that is certainly one of the reasons for our diversification plans at Gibbs and Cox. In terms of new ship construction for the larger platforms that Gibbs and Cox has historically been heavily involved in, we have seen program cancellations (CG (X)), decreased production (DDG 1000) and numerous pro- gram delays. The cycles and oscillations of this type of work therefore have changed and the new start peaks have moved further apart. We are looking at other areas such as engineering studies and services for the government, plat- form sustainment and improvement, and commercial opportunities, to decrease the depths of the valleys and adjust the peak leveling for the future. INSIGHTS Rick Biben Chief Executive and President of Gibbs and Cox, Inc.
