Reshaping RSIS

A management buyout has taken place at RS Information Systems, with co-founder William Scott Amey and director Rudolph Baker leaving the company.

Co-founder Rodney Hunt and director Ronald Trowbridge now own the company. Hunt said he has taken on most of Amey's duties as chief operating officer in addition to serving as president and chief executive officer at the McLean, Va., firm.

Amey decided to retire for personal reasons, and Baker, who was not an active part of the firm, decided to sell his piece of the company at the same time, Hunt said. The deal had been the works for about nine months, he said.

Financial details were not disclosed.

RSIS grew from a start-up to a 1,400-employee firm by 2002, when Hunt and his colleagues won the $409 million Technology Integrator Support Services from the Commerce Department. The company has several other major federal contracts and graduated out of the 8(a) program, for disadvantaged small businesses, in 2003.

The company now has about 1,800 people, he added.

Hunt said Amey's departure is in some ways well-timed, because the company is no longer a small business and needs to change the way it approaches the government market.

"My focus of late has been strategic," he said. "We're trying to decide whether we want to continue in this full and open [contracting] arena in a private manner, or consider taking the company public."

Hunt said he will continue to serve as COO until that choice is made. If officials decide to try to go public, he said, he will probably hire a "seasoned professional" to fill the role.