Executive Mosaic is honored to announce Tony Moraco, chief executive at SAIC, as the newest inductee into the Wash 100, the premier group of leaders who create value for the American public and execute strategic vision at the intersection of the public and private sectors.

One of the defining events in GovCon in 2013 was the split of iconic contractor SAIC in two – the ‘new’ SAIC led by CEO Tony Moraco focused on enterprise IT and technical services, and John Jumper-led Leidos in the national security, health, and engineering spaces.

SAIC announced Moraco would take the reigns in November 2012, and the only way to describe 2013 was “an intense year of change,” Moraco said.

“We rolled out the new company, implemented a new operating structure, and articulated SAIC’s value proposition for our customers and investors,” Moraco told ExecutiveBiz.

The historically turbulent market left some questioning whether it was the right to for the spin-off, but it was just that that ability to retool and remake SAIC without many of its earlier organizational conflicts of interests amid that uncertainty that made the move the right time and “a once-in-a-lifetime career opportunity,” Moraco said.

As the overall market is not growing, he told the Washington Post, the firms that grow will be those that can reposition their firms to be better able to take business from competitors.

“We will be going to the marketplace with both a current success story and the beginning of a new era,” he told ExecutiveBiz. “We have organized and optimized our capabilities, such that we can deliver on a larger scale and diverse base to ensure that the customers are getting the services and solutions they need at a very competitive price.”

“With all that in place now, I’m most eager for SAIC to begin to tap our full potential.”

Moraco joined SAIC in 2006 from Boeing, where he had led programs focused on space ground segments, geospatial technology, and homeland security solutions as business unit general manager and deputy of the Space and Geospatial Intelligence business unit.

At SAIC, he rose to the rank of president of the government solutions group, after stints as president of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance group, and executive vice president of operations and performance excellence, where he led the delivery of enterprise services.

As he looks forward, Moraco knows the key to fulfilling that potential is continuing what he saw firsthand the company do best amid historic currents of change. “In reflecting over the past year, what I am most excited about is how our people maintained their laser focus on supporting our customers’ missions while much change was occurring all around them,” Moraco told ExecutiveBiz this fall.

“We really do have the best and brightest. We really do make the most of our strong 40+ year partnership with our customers, reinforced by having two-thirds of our employees deployed and working alongside our clients every day.”