Toni Townes-Whitley didn’t comply with a step-by-step blueprint to succeed in the highest of the protection business. The SAIC CEO’s path was non-linear, stretching horizontally and vertically earlier than reaching the highest of the $4.4 billion protection tech big.
Talking on the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit final week, Townes-Whitley mentioned that she made “about three or 4 key turns” in her profession earlier than changing into the second Black female CEO currently in the Fortune 500.
A type of turns occurred proper after she graduated from Princeton. She selected the Peace Corp in Gabon over a full-ride for an MBA. As a part of the civilian volunteer program, she helped construct 37 faculties and taught public well being to 820 college students over three years.
Her time within the Peace Corp, which many thought would set her again, was a “leapfrogging” second in that it eschewed the standard ladder and gave her completely different life experiences. “[L]eapfrogging is considered one of my core values, considered one of my 10 that I’ve used for about 20 years,” she mentioned.
After the Peace Corps, she started her white-collar profession as a administration guide on the accounting agency Arthur Andersen. One other surprising flip got here when the corporate collapsed amid the Enron scandal within the early 2000s. She joked that she “may need bought the final contract” earlier than leaving.
Combining leapfrogging with the spirit of service—she’s the daughter of a three-star common—Townes-Whitley now runs SAIC and is on the “intersection” of business know-how and sophisticated mission environments.
The shift to tech and a vertical leap
After Arthur Anderson folded, Townes-Whitley charted a brand new course by becoming a member of Unisys, a server infrastructure firm, which catapulted her into the tech world.
Skilled as an economist, she quickly realized that her love for modeling and regression evaluation translated completely into know-how—a subject she as soon as thought was a mismatch for her expertise.
“A few of you who don’t have language or taxonomy for what you’re doing, you suppose there’s no place for that within the new world order that you simply’re moving into,” she mentioned. “There’s all the time bridging and transition.”
Townes-Whitley ultimately joined Microsoft in 2015; there she led the corporate’s international public sector, which broadened her understanding of how know-how can energy civic and authorities transformation. Throughout her time at Microsoft, she traveled to greater than 140 nations.
After leaving Microsoft, Townes-Whitley sat on a number of company boards, together with Nasdaq. However she realized she nonetheless had “gasoline within the tank” to guide.
In 2023, she accepted the function of CEO at SAIC, a $4.4 billion protection know-how agency the place one-third of staff are veterans. The transfer introduced her profession full circle, again to her household’s army roots and her lifelong dedication to service.
“It’s wonderful, as girls leaders and executives, how little we imagine about how good we’re,” she mentioned. “It’s not in regards to the glass ceilings—it’s the sticky flooring. Examine your sticky flooring.”
