THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410150225
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Sperry Marine Inc. of Charlottesville, a military contractor whose top management already is framed by prominent Navy backgrounds, is adding Adm. Paul David Miller to its rolls as president.
Miller, 52, retires Oct. 31 as commander-in-chief of U.S. Atlantic Command and as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic.
He is credited with orchestrating the current Haitian operations, ferrying Army troops aboard Navy carriers in the first operation of its kind. He also has been responsible for fielding the troops and equipment needed at other trouble spots in the world, including Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.
Sperry Marine Inc., formerly a subsidiary of Newport News Shipbuilding, was acquired less than a year ago by a partnership formed by J.F. Lehman & Co. and institutional investors.
Lehman served as secretary of the Navy from 1981 to 1987.
J.F. Lehman & Co. is a private investment banking firm based in New York City that specializes in the domestic and international aerospace, marine, defense and transportation industries. Lehman also serves as Sperry Marine's chairman.
Sperry's president and chief executive officer, George A. Sawyer, was assistant secretary of the Navy for shipbuilding and logistics from 1981 to 1983 and also was executive vice president of General Dynamics Corp.
The addition of Miller gives Sperry a powerful trio of defense industry insiders.
``We are extremely pleased to be gaining an executive of the stature and experience of Adm. Miller,'' said Sawyer, who will remain as chief executive officer and vice chairman of the board. ``Paul Miller has the knowledge, experience and savvy to lead our drive for increased commercial market share.''
Miller is a native of Roanoke and graduated from Norfolk Catholic High School. His 30-year naval career included command of a frigate and guided missile destroyer; a cruiser/destroyer group aboard the carrier Enterprise; the 7th Fleet in the Pacific; and the Atlantic Fleet.
Sperry is privately owned. It develops and manufactures marine navigation and control systems. It employs about 1,000 people worldwide, 600 of them in Charlottesville. Founded in 1910, the company maintains sales and service offices at 20 locations throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, including one in Virginia Beach.
Sperry is expected to have gross revenues of about $135 million this year, about 45 percent of which represents revenues from military sales, spokesman James A. Noone said. It grossed more than $120 million a year from 1990 to 1992, he said.
The firm is well-known for its manufacture of the gyrocompass, a navigational device which the company's founder, Elmer A. Sperry, first marketed in the United States in 1910.
It also manufactures marine autopilots, radar and ship's stabilizers.
``Our main product is an integrated bridge system in which we integrate many of these components into one complete system for navigational management,'' Noone said.
The bridge system was developed for commercial use but has been picked up by the Navy for use in its new Cyclone-class coastal patrol boats, several of which are based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
Although Sperry Marine's top management has the Navy in its background, Sawyer said the company regards the commercial market, which accounts for most of its sales, as its first priority.
``While we regard the Navy as a valuable customer, we're really tightly focused on the commercial market for our major products,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Adm. Paul David Miller
by CNB