Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: TONI TOWNES-WHITLEY

In October 2023, Townes-Whitley took the reins of federal contractor SAIC, becoming one of two Black female Fortune 500 CEOs and leading a company with fiscal 2023 revenue of $7.7 billion. She told USA Today that she wanted people to move beyond focusing on a CEO’s race and gender, but added, “If there is a young lady out there who looks like me and says, ‘I’m not sure if there’s ever a role for me there,’ now she knows that there is.”

Following some recompete losses in past years, SAIC chalked up big wins in April and July, winning a seven-year, $494 million safety and mission assurance support recompete contract from NASA and being selected to compete for task orders on the Department of the Interior’s Foundation $2 billion, 10-year Cloud Hosting Services II contract.

A Princeton University alumna, Townes-Whitley volunteered for the Peace Corps after college. Before SAIC, she served as president of Microsoft’s U.S.-regulated industries, president of CGI Federal and held management roles at Unisys. She joined SAIC as its CEO-elect in June 2023.

Townes-Whitley serves on the boards of Nasdaq, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative.