Speeches

Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) Speech

Hugh Taylor, President, Commercial, State and Local Solutions, Northrop Grumman IT, Richmond, Va., Nov. 14, 2005

It’s a pleasure to be here today with the commonwealth’s CIO Lem Stewart, Secretary of Technology Eugene Huang and all of the dignitaries and local officials that are here. I know I speak for everyone here when I say how much I appreciate their leadership and commitment to improving the lives of the people of Virginia by helping to bring commonwealth information technology into the 21st century.

Northrop Grumman is proud to have been selected as the partner who will work with VITA to modernize its IT infrastructure – and particularly proud to be a part of this announcement of a new center in chesterfield county to support VITA

Today, we are announcing the building of, not one, but two facilities totaling nearly 300,000 square feet in the commonwealth. In the southwest, we will be building a 130,000 square foot facility in Russell County, which will be Northrop Grumman’s east coast Enterprise Solution Center and provide disaster recovery for VITA, Northrop Grumman and future Northrop Grumman customers.

The facility here will be the Richmond’s Enterprise Solutions Center, located on a 20-acre parcel in the Meadowville Technology Park. This center will house VITA’s headquarters, a data center, a network operations center, computer incident response center and other Northrop Grumman operations.

This is more than a new workplace. This will be the hub for the Northrop Grumman/Virginia partnership for many years to come. All Virginia citizens will benefit from these facilities and the technologies that will be introduced during the life of the contract.

This is a pioneering public-private partnership. Northrop Grumman working with VITA will bring innovative ideas to solve IT business problems; deliver access to advanced technologies; provide significant resources for the benefit of citizens; deliver expertise and knowledge to bring major projects to completion; and provide economic development benefits to Chesterfield County and throughout the commonwealth.

Northrop Grumman, with more than 32,000 employees living and working in Virginia, is already the commonwealth’s largest technology and manufacturing employer. And now we’re especially excited to welcome the highly skilled and motivated VITA workforce.

At Northrop Grumman, our employees are our number one priority and we are committed to them. Our employees treat one another with respect, take pride in the significant contributions that come from the diversity of individuals and ideas, and work in an atmosphere marked by openness and trust. To demonstrate our commitment to them and their professional growth, we provide the education and development they look for.

Northrop Grumman is proud of its long history and significant presence in Virginia. Instead of offshoring technology jobs as many companies are doing these days, we’re delighted to be hiring right here at home in Virginia.

And we are excited to soon be working with current VITA employees and people across the commonwealth who are seeking long-term career opportunities in the growing IT field.

We look forward to working with VITA and the state agencies in defining the IT future of the commonwealth.

Thank you.

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