Executive Reference

Responses to Reference Discussions for Richard Martin

Taylor, Brantley and Jones were references provided by Richard. Peter Stanley is an unbiased reference.

References Contacted Relationship with Richard Current Position/ Company Date of Conversation

Jim Taylor (Retired) Previous Supervisor Vice President/ XYZ Imaging, Inc. 01/08/2001

Bob Brantley Previous Supervisor and Peer President Special Programs/ ABC Space Center 01/11/2001

Davis Jones Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate Principal/ Booth Adam, Inc. 01/12/2001

Peter Stanley (unbiased) Previous Supervisor Executive Vice President/ ABC Space Center 01/13/2001

Q1: How long have you known Richard and in what context?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor
I have known him since the 80’s. He is a "fast-tracker" within the Organization, by the time I had left the company he had taken over my position.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer I have known him since the late 70’s and we have been associates and for a while he reported to me. We are now business associates.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I have known Richard since 1987 in the context of an employee of his. Also as a peer and business associate.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I have known Richard since the early 80's, somewhere between fifteen and twenty years. I was a Supervisor of Richard's and he ran a large facility for me.

Q2: What are your general impressions of Richard?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard basically is a very up-front individual. He is very ambitious, knows where he wants to go and is very thorough in preparing himself to be very competitive. Also, with a background in both the government and commercial sector, he has a good blend. As a government person you don't get humbled very often because we spend taxpayers money. But when you go into the commercial sector you have to be cost competitive and I think he learned the discipline there to balance his outlook in how to do business.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard is a solid Systems Engineer and an accomplished manager. During his time in the government, he managed a couple of thousand person, 24 hour a day operation and did a super job at that.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate He is as quick a study as I have ever known. He is able to capture what the salient parts of an issue are, from a variety of input, which is kind of what you described he will have to do with your client in putting together a strategic plan and such.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Richard is a very good guy. He comes out of a government experience base. He was hired by the fellow that now runs our line of business here which is a six, seven or eight billion dollar enterprise. Obviously I think highly of Richard since I had a couple of people to recruit and Richard was one of them.

Q3: How would you describe Richard's personal demeanor; aggressive, laid back, etc.

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard is aggressive. He knows what needs to get done and he doesn't suffer fools too often. He can actually go into a forum and pick out who is going to be making a contribution. He is focused and he wants to quickly get to a solution and does so by picking out those that are actually the contributors. He has an aggressive style of management but he does not alienate people. He is very much of gentleman and very well balanced. When I say he is aggressive, it is not a negative term.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer A very good guy to work with. He can be a little hyper at times and is not necessarily a team player.Give him a problem to go out on his own and he is tremendous. Sometimes he is a team player but it depends. Richard is best when you have a customer that has a device that they are having a problem with where they need an innovative solution. Richard is definitely a "go to" guy. He can be a little bit of a maverick, which is both good and bad.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I would say he is somewhere in-between but definitely more toward the aggressive end. I would add to that, he has never come across as over-bearing. Sometimes aggressive people can be over-bearing and hard to deal with. They sometimes pursue goals independent of reality and Richard is not that type of person. He knows when to adjust things that are not going to work.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I would say he was in-between. He can be assertive but aggressive would be too strong. He certainly wouldn't shrink from a challenge or a confrontation if it were appropriate. In general, I think he has pretty good judgement.

Q4: Would you describe Richard as a loner, introverted or more outgoing and people-oriented?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard is more of an outgoing person. He feels more comfortable in certain groups, like I said, he doesn't suffer fools very well. He is selective of the people with whom he socializes but he is more outgoing.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard is more outgoing.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate It's funny, a lot of people are fairly easy to categorize. On one hand Richard is very outgoing, if I had to give him one of those three, definitely not introverted, he is outgoing.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I would say he is more outgoing.

Q5: Is Richard a perfectionist?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor A little bit, I don't think he goes all the way to the right as far as demanding perfection though. He knows the schedules of when things need to be met. He knows that he cannot go and demand to provide an optimum solution because the government can't afford that particular type of solution. So he needs to come up with solutions that are affordable and he does. I think he is good at compromising as far as what is good enough and what can the customer afford.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer He likes to produce good product but he also recognizes deadlines. Yes, he wants to do perfect but he tempers that with deadlines. You can't always do it perfectly so you do it the best you can within your deadlines.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate More so than not, he knows when the 80% solution is good enough but he tried to encourage people to do their absolute best.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor No, I don't think he is a perfectionist, in the best context of that. Sometimes meeting the requirements is good enough, as opposed to spending extra money or time doing additional things to get everything exactly right. I think Richard has very good, balanced judgement in terms of how much information you need to make a decision and getting on with things. He also knows the associated risk of not having every little last bit of information or being perfect in your selection of data before making your decision.

Q6: What is Richard's management style?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard works in coalitions like I said before, he gets the right people together to formulate solutions for the demands of the customer. He picks the right team to come up with the right solutions as quickly as possible. Richard is very smart so there is a lot of self sufficiency there but he knows that he does not know it all. He has learned, I believe, to be more of a coalition builder.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard forms teams, he is inclusive in his style. He does not believe that information is power and that he with the most information wins. He tends to share that information and tries to engage the team. He is fairly hands-off unless the project was in trouble in which case he would engage fairly heavy-handedly.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate My way or the highway. He would reward success and he would deal with failure.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Richard works well with teams for a combination of reasons, his credibility, technical expertise, ability to listen to other people and his ability to calibrate his team. On these big programs you learn that someone's title isn't necessarily commensurate with their ability to contribute. Richard is good at fathoming that out and in making those judgements.

Q7: How do you feel Richard would perform in the role I have described?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor I think it will be a challenge for him but I think he will do very well.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Since he left us and he has had management positions, moved and had some business development, sales and marketing experience and I think that enhances his resume for this particular search. He comes out of probably some of the best organizations in the country for large scale program management. It is clear from my discussions with him that he understands the importance of profit, top line and bottom line to companies. I think his business skills are substantially improved since leaving a large non-profit organization like the U.S. Government. Compared to being product oriented, I feel he has a real good systems view. Very few people are all field players but he has had good experience in all of those areas, he will do very well.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I think Richard will shine in that roll, I really do. If he is given the latitude to take the steps that he needs to take, he will put together a strategy. He will then put together a plan to implement that strategy and then he'll start executing it. And he will do that in fairly short order.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I think he would do a very solid, good job. Running something of this ilk is small potatoes compared to what he has done in the past. Not to say that it is not important but, I think he will certainly go in with a degree of confidence and experience that will speak well for his potential for success.

Q8: What level of management do you think Richard is capable of handling?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor He has always been, since he went into the commercial sector, at the Vice President level having total control of budget and projects. He has also had to deal with a lot of subcontractors so the idea of building coalitions can be exploited for your client.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer He has performed at the Vice President level for most of the last number of years in terms of his responsibilities. It is like Colonels to Generals in the selection process, it is a tough one to the President or CEO of an organization and it depends on lots of factors. I think intellectually Richard can do that job and the only question would be, does he fit with the culture? He would certainly be a solid candidate.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I think President or, within ten years, CEO.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Definitely General Manager, something like that.

Q9: What would you consider to be Richard's key accomplishments?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor First of all, when he and I worked together he took over my particular job of running the premier operations center, which included both contractors and government people. Then he went into the development phase of providing big systems that he had, the problem is that since they were classified, he cannot tout them that well. In his commercial experience he has always made a profit for his groups.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard was instrumental in the development, fielding and operation of some of the most complex intelligence collection systems, and can take a lot of credit for those successful deployments and operations. That is certainly where I worked most closely with him.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate Some of them I cannot talk about because of security. He put together a very cohesive and efficient running reconnaissance business.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I can't go into that because most of those are classified. Suffice to say that he has accomplished some extraordinary things with his team. None of us can take individual credit for some of these things but I could tell you that they were rather daunting.

Q10: Tell me about Richard's integrity.

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor There is no question about his integrity. As far as in the agency, they don't force you to be a very honest person because of the their policy of polygraphs and everything else but because of the way we were spending the taxpayers money, we had to be very accountable. We weren't audited that often but Richard is a very honest person in anything he does. He knows that there will be an accountability at the end of any project where he will have to go and justify what monies he made, he is a very honest person.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer I think it is without question, he has high moral values and if you had a list of one to a thousand people who might embezzle, Richard would not even be on the list.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate His professional integrity is excellent, so are his technical and personal integrity. I consider him to be a good friend.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I have no reason to believe in any sense that he has anything but the highest integrity.

Q11: How would you describe Richard's problem solving techniques and abilities?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard is very open. He is a smart individual and knows very well how to exploit the individuals around him who are contributors in order to come up with the solutions for which he is looking. He is, in that aspect, very sufficient and knows the areas in which he needs to cater to the needs of the experts that he has. If you look at his track record, he has done an incredible job.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard forms teams well. He allows people to organize and get the job done where they can report the results back to him. He has a fairly easy-going personality.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate He balances quite well, the technical aspects of systems engineering and the practical aspects of organizations and the organizational entropy that might exist and the resistance that might exist. He takes a complete view of what the obstacles or the issues might be to the progress of the situation.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Richard's abilities are very strong, particularly in the space area. The facility that he ran was an operational facility that oversaw the operation of spacecraft and in doing that, it is a 24/7 type of job 365 days a year. There are always anomalies of things that came up and Richard was responsible as the chief of that facility to see that those anomalies got resolved and that the operations were maintained on some very important national programs. Again, under pressure and a matter of having to be available on an ongoing and continuous basis and being able to marshal teams of technical and programmatic experts to work those problems gives him a very good experience base.

Q12: Is Richard an individual performer or team-oriented?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor He is actually both. He can exploit the expertise that is around him but when he goes forward he can go forward by himself. He doesn't need a forum and is smart enough to go around and learn what he needs to learn in order to make his case.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer He is very good individually but I have also seen him use people very well. He knows how to get people marching to the same tune.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate He can be both. If you ask him to get something accomplished by himself, he will do that. If you ask him to get something accomplished that requires a team; he will put that team together and get it done.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I think Richard is both. He has strong capabilities but I think at the senior managerial position it is more important to build a successful team and to have people feel that they have a sense of ownership for part of the programs and I think Richard did that.

Q13: How does senior management perceive Richard?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard has always been perceived as a high achiever. If you look at his career track in the agency, for a young officer he moved along very quickly which means he assumed additional responsibilities. He proved that he could deliver those things in an excellent manner and people had tagged him. Likewise, we did it in the agency because of succession planning and Richard was always populating a lot of the lead positions that we had, in a sense grooming him for higher level responsibilities. He has always been a fast tracker from the senior management side.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard gets along well with senior management. Again, it is always the right person in the right job so it is impossible to say if the future is going to be like the past. I saw him in probably eight or ten different responsibilities and as far as I could tell he did well in all of them. I don't have supervisory experience over what he is doing now but, in speaking with him, I can tell he is engaged on the projects on which he is working and is pushing the ball down the field.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate He is perceived by senior management as a guy who can get things done. I'd say he is a macro-manager, when he becomes a micro-manager that is not good. Because then he is doing things that he doesn't want to be doing and he has problems to deal with and those problems are people. He sets it up so other people can deal with the micro stuff and he can concentrate on the macro.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Richard is perceived as a senior manager and has a wealth of experience as part of teams that we have assembled over the years.

Q14: How is Richard perceived by his subordinates?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor The subordinates actually like Richard. He is very much a people person and when they look at Richard they recognize that he came from the ranks like them and knows what his roots are. Whenever he asks his subordinates to do something, they know that he has done it before himself.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Again, about the same as his peers.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate Sometimes there is a mixed review. I viewed him as someone who wanted to get a very difficult job done. He would go through a whole variety of stages and steps to get the job done, personally as well as professionally. He would take the necessary actions to get the job done. We were involved in the reconnaissance business years ago with satellites and such and there were times that it would take extraordinary efforts to get things to work but he did it.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor He is perceived as a solid leader, as someone who is willing to roll up his sleeves to do the job and who gives those who work for him the ability to go out and solve a problem. He empowers his people which, I think, is an extremely important characteristic.

Q15: How is Richard perceived by his peers?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor On his peer side, Richard has always been looked at as an aggressive person in order to go and get the job done. He is always conscious of his peers and he is very competitive in that particular sense. It is whoever does the best job though, he doesn't do anything to jeopardize their competitiveness.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer He makes friends easily and has a good work dynamic.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate As an aggressive guy.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Again, he is a team builder who is respected for his capabilities. If I was going to say anything that might be considered derogatory, he does have some "edges" to his personality on occasion but nothing that I would consider very serious or that keeps him from being well perceived by those around him.

Q16: What have you learned from Richard?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor I learned to be more patient. I was always a micro manager who functioned more in a crisis management mode. Richard taught me more patience, to trust the system and to let people come up with solutions rather than go and edict a course of action that I wanted them to pursue. That also added a lot of humor to our relationship.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Richard had a good sense of the operational environment that we ran and put it into good perspective for management. He cared for the operation and the people, when you are running a twenty-four hour operation you have to be sensitive to people concerns so that you can nip them in the bud. When you have to ask people to come to work at two o'clock in the morning you had better make sure that they don't have anything to complain about if you want to achieve extraordinary mission success. Richard showed a good skill for balancing all of those equities.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I have learned a methodology from Richard. A methodology approach to some problems. I have learned a discipline on corrective actions from him and a variety of approaches to problems.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I learned the discipline that goes into an operational environment. It requires dedication to always be available to oversee problems while being responsible for billions of dollars of assets and doing that in a way that you withstand that pressure and share the responsibility. This demonstrates how terribly important the team building can be and I think Richard has contributed to my understanding of that.

Q17: What has Richard learned from you?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor I think from my side it is more of a discipline in how to do program management. What I learned initially, and Richard later learned was that you had to go and sit down and talk to the customer. They are the ones that are going to defend you in the budget hearings and advocacy forums about whether or not we are delivering the capabilities that they can really use. In that sense, those humbling activities were very good for Richard.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer We both grew up as Systems Engineers, understanding how some of the parts were of the greater whole. How you approach the definition of a large system and get it defined so that, in our case, one hundred thousand people were all marching to the same drummer. He worked closely, as I did, with the systems definitions.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate Richard has learned from me the importance of a diverse set of ideas. He is a type A kind of guy and I am a type B kind of guy. If we want to go to that model, I am more of an introvert, he, more of an extrovert. He has probably learned some patience from me.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I think you would have to ask Richard that. I think maybe some aspects of trying to be efficient even in a government organization where efficiency isn't always rewarded. We tried to run our government organization much like a business.

Q18: Tell me about Richard's rapport building/relationship building skills.

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard is very good socially. He co-ops people into working together as a team. He always brought a good blend of skills into how to manage an organization.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer I think his skills are excellent. Richard works a large circle of friends and does that effectively. I had a sense that when he had people working for him that they wanted to work for him independent of him being the boss.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate Those skills of Richard's can be super and they can also have some challenges. He is an extremely bright guy on the closer side to aggressive than not, on the closer side to intense than not. Sometimes that can intimidate or put some people off. They just have to get to know him. If you are going to go put something together in a year, not everyone is going to be your friend.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Those are good, as I said before, he is a team builder.

Q19: What experience have you had in watching Richard redirect a business unit or group?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor He could turn the group around totally in terms of focusing on the fact that the customer was the most important thing and that was what we had to cater to. No matter how well we did, if they were not satisfied with what we delivered, then we failed. He turned their attitude around so that the customer felt that they were actually part of the solution. After he took over for me, he convinced the program office on the deliverable capabilities that were coming into the facility that they really met what the customers needed. Since the customers didn't have an advocacy in a development forum, Richard had to become their advocate and I believe he did an excellent job in making that happen.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer My experience in that is only anecdotally. I have probably had dinner with him four or five times since he has been at XYZ Corporation and there he described the classic defense contractor branching out into some new market areas. Also, generically, he spoke of the challenges for the collision of the two different cultures and he seemed to be engaged, through his eyes, in facilitating that transition.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I have had two experiences, one was when I worked for him and another was when he worked for me. In both cases, in redirecting, he gave as clear a set of objectives as he could and did not try to mandate the path or all the steps that were to be taken. Then he managed and monitored it and got back to measuring the progress and causing corrective action to be taken when it was needed. The corrective action was for instance, we are missing this date, what steps need to be taken so that we don't miss a major milestone, etc.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor When he was running this facility for me, with 2500-3000 people, and he had other facilities around the country that reported in to him as the head of operations, we wanted to try and downsize these facilities and make them more efficient. That meant cutting back on government personnel as well as contractor personnel and trying to do the same job with less resources. He had quite a challenge to take this on and succeed.

Q20: What steps should my client take to insure Richard's success in the new environment?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Give Richard a charter and the autonomy to be able to go and execute against it and to be held accountable for the profit and loss situation. Let him go and finish his job rather than trying to micro-manage him too much.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer He doesn't have an interpersonal problem because he works so well with teams. Give him the tools to do his job and let him do it.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I think what they ought to do is, if they have hired him to go become as relevant as they want, and if they want to hire him to then go succeed the current President, they should have a series of interchanges with him to listen to what he has to say.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor If anything it would be to help him learn their business. Having gone from one company to another, I know how important it is to know about who does what in a company and who the people are that make things happen. Richard is not a finance guy so he might need a good solid financial person. Putting him in the right environment, recognizing both his strengths and weaknesses is important.

Q21: Describe Richard's personality in difficult or stressful situations.

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Richard basically is a very patient individual. He is emotional because he gets personally involved in everything he does so some people might think he comes up short sometimes but, I think that is because of his involvement. He cannot be dispassionate and remove himself once he gets involved because he is really committed.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer I am hard pressed to remember Richard ever being mad enough to scream or throw things. That is part of his skill, I think adversity just causes him to further focus and he handles pressure well.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate He uses humor, he is a very funny guy.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor He handles them in a very analytical way. His training has been to take very difficult situations under very stressful conditions and to solve those problems. He does that with his cast of experts around him but he is the leader and since he had the responsibilities, I think he should get the credit. He did an outstanding job in that regard.

Q22: How "professionally proactive" is Richard?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor Actually, he is very proactive. Because of his competitive nature he actually pushes management sometimes to make decisions once he believes that this is the right course of action that needs to be pursued.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Very

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate Very

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor He is very proactive.

Q23: What other comments would you like to make?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor I think for Richard that this will be a tremendous growth opportunity and that for your client it is an exploitation of the investment that both the government and the commercial sector have made in him. He brings both sides of the equation and is a tremendous blend when you take a look the aerospace industry where the government tries to outsource a lot of things to the commercial sector, Richard would be the person that can make this happen.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer I think that based on my limited knowledge of what you are looking for, Richard has a real good space background and has worked across the industry from operations to RF skills so he would be a great candidate for you to have on your list.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate I think he would be quite capable of doing that job and it will be fun to watch. I was hoping to get him up closer to Virginia.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor I wish I could tell you more about the specifics but as I said, they are classified. The scope of what we were working on and his part of it was in the billions of dollars.

Q24: Would you be willing to speak directly to our Client about Richard?

Jim Taylor, Previous Supervisor I would be happy to.

Bob Brantley, Previous Supervisor and Peer Sure, that would be no problem at all.

Davis Jones, Previous Supervisor, Peer and Subordinate You bet I would, if I could help in that I would be willing to write a letter of testimony, whatever.

Peter Stanley, Previous Supervisor Sure, I would be happy to do that.