DiPentima to lead SRA

Renato DiPentima will become the chief executive officer of SRA International Inc. Jan. 1. 2005.

He replaces Ernst Volgenau, founder of the government solutions company and its CEO for the past 26 years. Volgenau will remain chairman of the company, and DiPentima also will continue as president in addition to the CEO position, according to a company announcement released today.

The 63-year-old DiPentima, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Italy, noted that SRA has had steady growth for 26 years -- usually 20 percent a year, but 37 percent last year.

"We have always focused on two things — taking care of the customer and good care of our people. If we have always done those two things, the money has shown up and it has," he said in a telephone interview.

He thanked Volgenau for having "enough trust to pass the baton to me and the rest of the management team."

In other senior management changes at SRA:

David Kriegman will become chief operating officer.

Anthony Valletta will become director of the SRA's defense sector, a position Kriegman formerly held.

J. Patrick Burke will become director of the command and control, communications and intelligence unit.

David Langstaff, former CEO of Veridian Corp. and a member of SRA's board of directors, will become chairman of the board's newly formed Long Range Planning Committee.

Volgenau said he's pleased with the changes. "They illustrate the depth of the SRA management team and our careful planning for management transition," Volgenau said in a statement. "DiPentima had a distinguished career in government and has been a major contributor to SRA for nearly 10 years. David Kriegman joined our company in 1983 and has done excellent work in increasingly responsible positions."