Ten CFOs to Watch in 2010: Bill Milligan, HPTi
Present: Chief Financial Officer, High Performance Technologies, Inc. (HPTi)
Career highlights: Over 30 years’ of experience in finance positions, 20 as CFO.
Personal: Milligan is a native Washingtonian. “My wife and I were born in the same hospital, baptized in the same church by the same priest, but we didn’t meet for 20 years.”
2010 Tips:
- Be careful in investment decisions. “TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program] can’t go on forever. We can’t continue to grow the national debt. That tells me to focus on what you have and be careful about investment decisions and increased spending, because we could be seeing some changes in the marketplace that could increase competition..”
- Focus on revenue more than cutting costs. “Growing revenue is more important than cutting costs. Priced right— you make a profit. If you can grow your indirect costs at a lower rate, your profits will go up. If you’re growing revenue, there is no need to cut costs; but you need to be more efficient, which should be relatively easy as you grow.”
Full Interview:
ExecutiveBiz: You’ve seen a year of high marks. What best practices have you put in place to bring them about?
Bill Milligan: A big part of it comes down to ethics. Ethics is something we don’t just look at once a year; it’s a continual thing, and it relates to our core values. Every employee, on their first day, gets an introduction to the ethics program. As a part of our new-hire process, once a quarter we have a second round of orientation, which our CEO, Tim Keenan, gives. Tim thinks it’s important to meet with every employee; the ethics portion is a significant part of that. Having every employee briefed on an ongoing basis, as many as three times their first year, gives us a leg up.
ExecutiveBiz: How, if at all, has insourcing affected HPTi?
Bill Milligan: The biggest impact of insourcing for us has been the government attempting to hire our employees but we haven’t seen much of an effect. We actually significantly increased our retention this past year. Increasing retention helps us in lots of ways. It improves our revenue generation, and obviously we avoid the cost of replacing employees which is high in this industry. Retention has also been positively impacted by providing employees the ability to rotate jobs. Our younger employees especially like this, because they don’t get locked into a project for years and years.
ExecutiveBiz: Healthcare IT and cybersecurity are two critical issues right now. How is HPTi contributing to those areas?
Bill Milligan: Healthcare IT continues to be a strong part of our business. While we are seeing significantly more competition, our growth rate is still high for industry standards. Our healthcare business grew by greater than 20 percent last year, centered on our work with the Department of Veterans Affairs. As for cybersecurity, we are doing work for the Justice Department, working in the portion of the Justice Department that assists other component pieces of Justice . We’re seeing additional opportunities in that area, and we have a handful of targeted opportunities for 2010.
ExecutiveBiz: Your compound annual growth rate most recently stood at 20-plus percent. Do you see that holding steady?
Bill Milligan: Yes, we’re maintaining a 20-plus percent growth rate. We see that continuing for another year. The good news about this business is that you have visibility into your future because of the long-term contracts, even though they aren’t guaranteed. We see $100 million as a big threshold to cross in this industry, and we’re going to cross it next year in 2010.
ExecutiveBiz: Recently HPTi won a 10-year, $147 million contract for User Productivity Enhancement, Technology Transfer, and Training from the Department of Defense’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program Office. What results will HPTi bring to the table?
Bill Milligan: We provide high performance computing support to government researchers performing R&D. We supplement actual research work through our university partners including Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Morgan State University.
ExecutiveBiz: What else can we expect from HPTi in 2010?
Bill Milligan: We have a small but significant Systems Engineering presence in a few markets. We’ve added some top talent to our management team in this area in the last year and are rolling out a new Systems Engineering service model. We’ve got some wonderful opportunities and are expecting some great things.
Posted by Staff Writer
on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010. Filed under Executive Spotlight.
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