Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] on Thursday said that Nazzic Keene, the company’s CEO since 2019 and a board member, will retire Oct. 1 and be succeeded by Tone Townes-Whitley, whose most recent job was president of U.S. Regulated Industries at Microsoft [MSFT] and is a former president of CGI Federal.
Keene will remain as a special adviser to Townes-Whitley and SAIC through Feb. 2, 2024 to aid in the transition.
At Microsoft, Townes-Whitley led the company’s U.S. sales strategy for the public sector and regulated commercial industries. She was in charge of a 5,200 employee organization with $16 billion in annual sales.
In addition to her prior role leading information technology services company CGI Federal, which is part of Canada’s
GGI [GIB], Townes-Whitley also held management roles at Unisys Corp. [UIS].
“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,” Donna Morea, chairwoman of SAIC’s board, said in a statement. “The board’s selection of her successor is the result of a thorough and thoughtful CEO success 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 digitial transformation and leading-edge technology integration makes her our clear choice to lead SAIC’s next chapter.”
Townes-Whitley will join SAIC on June 12 as CEO-elect.
Keene joined SAIC in 2012.