While CompuDyne and Siemens are well known to the inside-the-beltway crowd, perhaps fewer are intimately familiar with The Gores Group, a private equity firm with ownership stakes in 15 portfolio companies and a focus on high technology investments.

One of The Gores Group’s portfolio companies is CompuDyne, an industry leader in advanced technology integration for the Homeland Security market with more than 900 employees worldwide. In July of this year James O’Neill - formerly president of Northrop Grumman Corporation’s $4.5 billion Information Technology sector - took over as CEO of CompuDyne. And while the CompuDyne opportunity no doubt appealed to O’Neill, one could gather from his interview with ExecutiveBiz shortly after taking the helm that it was the entrepreneurial mission of The Gores Group and management style of Founder, Chairman and CEO Alec Gores in particular that O’Neill found most compelling.

The admiration appears to be mutual, as O’Neill’s role with The Gores Group is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Earlier this month O’Neill was named CEO at Siemens Enterprise Communications, a newly-created joint venture between The Gores Group and Siemens AG. With the move, O’Neill will continue to play a vital role within The Gores Group, and his decades of experience leading complex organizations will be put to work heading up the firm’s largest and most significant acquisition to date.

He’s known for his long and storied career in the federal IT community. For over five years, Jim O’Neill worked at Northrop Grumman, where he managed more than 18,000 employees in the company’s IT sector. Then, three months ago, O’Neill let the DC business community know it was time for a change; he promptly settled into a new role as CEO of CompuDyne, an industry leader in advanced technology integration for the Homeland Security market with more than 900 employees worldwide. In an exclusive interview with ExecutiveBiz, O’Neill shares the latest on his new position — and his excitement over the opportunities he sees ahead.

You left Northrop Grumman about 3 months ago. What are you doing now?

Jim O’Neill: I am now the CEO of CompuDyne at Gores Holding Company.

Can you tell me why you chose this opportunity?

Jim O’Neill: The reason I took Gores Group was because they were very entrepreneurial, with a focus on high technology in the public sector.

Can you tell us how the Gores Group is involved in CompuDyne?

Jim O’Neill: Gores owns CompuDyne, it is one of 15 portfolio companies that they own and it’s the only one in the public sector.

Read the rest of this entry »

Six months ago IT veteran Jim O’Neill was managing more than 18,000 employees as Northrop Grumman Information Technology sector’s corporate vice president and president. Three months ago that number dwindled to zero after O’Neill stepped down from his position at Northrop on the heels of a long and successful career in the industry. Today, however, O’Neill seems to have opted for a happy medium; recently settling into the role of CEO at CompuDyne, an industry leader in advanced technology integration for the Homeland Security market with more than 900 employees worldwide.

There is a popular saying from Irish-born playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Man can climb the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long.” Perhaps O’Neill, also born in Ireland, had those Irish countryman’s words in his thoughts when deciding to join CompuDyne and lead a company that has continued to grow impressively both organically and through acquisition since its founding in 1952.

Roughly one year ago, CompuDyne announced it would go from public to private after agreeing to be acquired by a group of private investors for $59 million and change. As O’Neill eases his way into the new position (he recently spoke at a “Visionaries in IT Lecture” at UMBC), it is safe to say that we will be hearing more from CompuDyne. O’Neill, an ExecutiveBiz “Beltway Game Changer,” remains an active and influential member of the Federal IT community: he served as the 2007 chairman of the Professional Services Council; is on the Board of Directors of Lee Technologies; and is a board member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Security Affairs Support Association.