Executive Spotlight: Gary Noyes of AT&T Government Solutions

Gary Noyes

Gary Noyes oversees the financial performance of AT&T Government Solutions as Chief Financial Officer.  He spoke with ExecutiveBiz on a variety of topics including MTIPS, his background and his take on the DCAA.

ExecutiveBiz: What is your background and how did you come to your current position with AT&T?

Gary Noyes: I have been with AT&T for 20 years, having celebrated my service anniversary last month.

I came to AT&T right out of college and was fortunate to get into a good program that allowed me several rotations early in my career, giving me a good foundation in the telecommunications and network outsourcing business. It was here that I was part of a team that built a new network outsourcing business model in the mid- to late 90s, which has some very close similarities to what we have here in the federal business and government solutions. So that was how I essentially have been able to grow up within the company and take advantage of opportunities for additional education – I received my master’s in telecommunications management – which has been real asset in my career with AT&T.

It has been very interesting to see the evolution of AT&T during my career. When I first started in 1990, this was a company that had just come through the divestiture court decree that created the ‘baby Bells’ and was still, I would say, coming to terms with how to structure itself and identify our target markets. Through my career, I’ve witnessed a company go from a highly regulated, telecommunications company to an innovative, high-tech company providing much more than just telecommunications services. Seeing a company develop services and move up an OSI stack into applications, developing an entire hosting capability and manage services – all types of innovation that certainly hadn’t been there prior to divestiture – has been really interesting to see.

ExecutiveBiz: What were some goals that you had for the firm from a standpoint of the people you oversee?

Gary Noyes: I certainly like to see my employees continue to develop throughout their careers.  AT&T is a company that is committed to employee development and leadership training; the company offers great leadership development programs to help folks learn about how this company is pivoting to manage services and how each of us in our jobs can help support company goals.

Also, the technical aspect is really important component to career development. As a finance organization, we make sure people are up-to-date on the latest changes to the federal acquisition regulations and cost-accounting standards. We make sure that we give people a continued professional education in those technical aspects of finance and accounting.

Executive Biz: Could you talk about the MTIPS products area?

Gary Noyes: AT&T is proud that we are the first Networx contract provider to be awarded the Authority to Operate (ATO) from the General Services Administration (GSA) for their Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Services (MTIPS) product. This service is a way for government agencies to meet the Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) initiative requirement to secure the government’s IT infrastructure. To date, we have disclosed MTIPS task orders with the Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.

AT&T’s cloud- based approach to cybersecurity is the foundation for MTIPS. We use the cloud to proactively detect and diffuse security threats, minimizing risk. We feel that AT&T’s MTIPS solution is a value-add service, helping agencies to take advantage of AT&T’s ability to look at what is happening within the cloud and identify what are the latest threats going on and how to protect the agency.

ExecutiveBiz: What is your take on the current financial situation for federal contractors and what are your thoughts on the DCAA?

Gary Noyes: All government contractors are dealing with the backlog of work that the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) has in terms of coming through and auditing for final rates so that contract closeouts can go forward. I think that AT&T, as a large government contractor, has had a similar experience compared to other contractors. I think DCAA has certainly worked through a lot of that backlog, but a significant backlog still exists.

Executive Biz: Do you have any advice for someone who is in the financial operations of their company and they’re trying to move up through the ranks?

Gary Noyes: I believe it is important to take opportunities to move jobs within your company, if it is large enough. I would recommend taking a new position every 18-24 months in the first 10 years in your career. It is important to get that diversity of jobs and not be pigeonholed into one area for more than a couple years, maybe 3 years at the most. You want to make sure you’re getting those opportunities to move around.

Executive Biz: Do you have any hobbies or activities that you like to spend your free time on?

Gary Noyes: I just recently got into boating. It’s been something that my entire family can do together. It has been great to let my two boys learn how to operate a boat and learn the responsibilities. Each person in the family has their jobs and it is kind of fun to go out and do that together.

Executive Biz: Whereabouts do you like to go out to boat?

Gary Noyes: We keep the boat right off the Potomac River.

Posted by John Adams on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010. Filed under Executive Spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry