Computer History Museum

Toups, John oral history

John Toups, the former CEO of Planning Research Corporation (PRC), describes his early career as a civil engineer which led him to form the consulting firm Toups Engineering, which consulted to local government and private real estate developers in Southern California on water and land use issues. In 1970, Toups Engineering was acquired by PRC and Toups continued to run it as an independent unit within the corporate structure until 1973 when he put in charge of all of PRC’s engineering companies. In 1977 he was named President and CEO of PRC. He describes the multiple lines of business that PRC had been in as a result of multiple acquisitions and how, under his leadership, the company was restructured to be more focused, including an expansion of federal government business, and how their engineering work eventually was replaced by an emphasis on IT services. He describes the process of marketing to the federal government including PRC’s approach to bidding and preparing proposals and also describes some of the work that they undertook for governments in other countries. He talks about how PRC itself went through a series of acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s until it was acquired by Litton Industries which was subsequently acquired by Northrup Grumman.

Item Details

Date
2009-04-01 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102702116
Organization
Computer History Museum
People
John Toups (Interviewee)
Luanne Johnson (Editor)
David Alan Grier (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Format
PDF
Credit line
Software Industry Special Interest Group
Extent
43 p.
Place of publication
USA/VA/Falls Church
Language
English
Acquisition number
X5326.2009
Subject
Northrop Grumman, Rand Corporation
Archive collection
Oral history collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection