Tyto Athene taps former IBM executive as CEO

Tyto Athene, a Reston-based IT contractor and portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners, has named a former IBM executive to be its CEO, according to a Wednesday announcement.

Andrew L. Boyd succeeds Dennis Kelly, who is retiring after two years as Tyto Athene’s CEO and will remain on the company’s board.

Boyd brings to Tyto Athene more than two decades of executive leadership experience across the defense and intelligence sectors. Most recently, he served as IBM’s federal defense and intelligence industry lead.

“His technical depth and track record of scaling mission-focused technology businesses make him the right leader to build on Tyto’s momentum and guide its next phase of growth,” Arlington Managing Partner Michael Lustbader said in a news release.

Previously, Boyd was CEO of S2 Analytical Solutions, a Herndon IT consulting firm, and National Security Solutions, the U.S. subsidiary of Idemia, a French provider of biometric solutions.

As head of those companies, Boyd led product and services businesses, expanded pipelines and repositioned the companies for growth. Over his career, Boyd has also held leadership positions at Reston-based government contractor Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and TASC, a Chantilly-based provider of services to national security and public safety customers that was acquired by Engility Holdings in 2015.

Previously, Boyd was a U.S. Air Force officer in space operations and acquisition. He earned a degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s in management of information technology, both from the University of Virginia.

Before joining Tyto Athene in 2024, Kelly served as CEO of Eqlipse Technologies, a Maryland-based defense contractor and engineering firm, and president and chief operating officer of Centauri, a Chantilly-based technology contractor. Under his leadership, both businesses were portfolio companies of Arlington Capital Partners.

Kelly is credited with leading Eqlipse through seven strategic acquisitions over 18 months. BlueHalo, at that time owned by Arlington Capital Partners, acquired Eqlipse in 2024; BlueHalo was acquired by AeroVironment in May 2025. In 2020, Arlington Capital Partners sold Centauri to Houston-based KBR for $827 million.

On Wednesday, Kelly wrote about his retirement on LinkedIn.

“Over the course of a long career, I know I didn’t always get everything right,” Kelly wrote. “I always tried to make decisions based on what I believed was right for our people, our customers and our businesses.”

Tyto Athene has 11 offices in the U.S. and Europe. Last year, the company acquired StackArmor, a McLean cloud and security automation solutions company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Arlington Capital Partners, a Maryland-based private equity firm, has invested in 200 companies since it was founded in 1999.