Computer History Museum

Bannister, Dan R. oral history

Dan R. Bannister describes his career with DynCorp beginning in 1953 as an electronic technician working for Land-Air, Inc., the predecessor to DynCorp, through becoming the president of DynCorp in 1985 and then his retirement when the company was sold to CSC in 2003. He describes how Land-Air had contracts with the Air Force to install and upgrade electronics systems in aircraft and with the Army to provide maintenance on aircraft in Vietnam. Land-Air became a highly-diversified conglomerate as a result of acquisitions. In the late 1960s, under then-president Chuck Gulledge, Bannister participated in a team that drew up a strategic plan to change the company to from a manufacturing and services business to a pure services business. The company divested itself of some of its lines of business and grew to become the largest private aviation services company in the U.S. The company was taken private with employee ownership in the late 1980 in response to the threat of a hostile take-over and began to focus on providing IT services to a variety of government agencies. Under Bannister’s leadership, the company completed a number of acquisitions which strengthened their capabilities in IT services. He describes the contract bidding and business development processes that DynCorp used. Following his resignation from DynCorp, Bannister joined the board of CACI and he describes the economic and competitive environment for government contractor companies in Northern Virginia.

Item Details

Date
2009-04-01 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102702846
Organization
Computer History Museum
People
Dan Bannister (Interviewee)
Luanne Johnson (Editor)
Paul E. Ceruzzi (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Credit line
Software Industry Special Interest Group
Extent
41 p.
Place of publication
North America/USA/VA/Falls Church
Language
English
Acquisition number
X5324.2009
Subject
DynCorp, CACI
Archive collection
CHM Oral History Collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection