How Amy Gilliland remade General Dynamics IT
Amy Gilliland, former president of GDIT, transformed the business over nearly 10 years as its leader. General Dynamics
By
Nick Wakeman
Her exit announcement was brief and skipped past a decade of transformation. Here is what unfolded over that timeframe.
General Dynamics wrote four paragraphs in its Oct. 2 announcement that Amy Gilliland was no longer president of the IT services unit.
Two of them were about her acting replacement, Paul Nedzbala. The rest was the standard thanks for “her contributions to our company” and best wishes “in her future endeavors.”
That was it. After 21 years with the corporation and nearly a decade as GDIT's president.
On the heels of Gilliland's departure came the news that Phebe Novakovic was stepping down as CEO effective Jan. 1 after leading the corporation for 14 years.
Novakovic will be succeeded by Danny Deep, the current GD president. Novakovic will have the role of executive chairman.
The company signaled that Deep was a likely heir apparent last December when he was appointed president, reviving a position that had been vacant since Novakovic herself held it under her predecessor Jay Johnson.
I am sure Gilliland watched all of this unfold. In the many times I interviewed her, she never gave any indication of CEO ambitions. But there is little doubt she is capable.
A GD spokesman said there is no connection between the timing of Gilliland’s departure and the announcement of Novakovic’s succession plan. Maybe so, but the timing is hard to ignore.
Whatever comes next, Gilliland has had a remarkable career and one that deserves more than four paragraphs.
Over her nearly decade-long run leading GDIT, I interviewed Gilliland multiple times and she spoke at a couple of our events. She helped me understand some of the leading trends in the market and what it is like to lead during a transformative time.
In her adult life, Gilliland has had two employers. First was the U.S. Navy, where she served as a surface warfare officer.
Then came General Dynamics in 2005, where she got her start in the private sector. She first worked on strategic planning and investor relations, and human capital.
But when she took the reins of GDIT in September 2017, she really began to stand out as she led the transformation of the division from a heavy reliance on personnel-driven offerings to a business that has proactively leaned into emerging technologies.
GDIT’s transformation began with a major acquisition and a major divestiture during her first year.
First, the company acquired CSRA for $9.7 billion, including $2.8 billion in assumed debt.
The acquisition brought GDIT a slew of next-generation IT offerings in areas like cloud computing and cybersecurity, as well as deeper relationships with the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
Then later in 2018, the company divested one of its largest lines of business by selling its call center operation to Maximus for $400 million.
Call center work generated about $800 million in annual revenue at the time, nearly 9% of GDIT’s revenue.
But that $400 million price tag – 50 cents for every $1 of revenue -- tells you something about the kind of margins that business generated for GDIT. Shedding it freed attention and resources to pursue higher-end work.
Just a year into the job, Gilliland managed through the off-boarding of the call center business and the integration of CSRA. Meanwhile, she launched a tech-forward strategy that continues to fuel GDIT’s momentum.
From 2020 to 2025, GDIT delivered year-over-year revenue growth. That trajectory is continuing, according to GD's financial reports for the first two quarters of this year.
GDIT’s tech strategy got another boost in 2022, when Gilliland launched the digital accelerators strategy.
That strategy includes zero trust, automation for IT operations, multi-cloud management, software factory, 5G and mission-focused artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The strategy pulls together investments, partnerships and internal resources to build solutions around those critical technology needs.
Gilliland continued to evolve her tech strategy and earlier this year she launched the Vision, Innovation and Acceleration initiative.
The VIA initiative adds investments around battlespace of the future, border security and smart government modernization to the original group of accelerators.
GDIT’s financial results reflect its transformation, but Gilliland also put an emphasis on the so-called softer side of the business – the people.
Nearlj every conversation I had with her inevitably turned to GDIT employees, the challenges they face and how much attention she paid them as a leader.
In a 2022 Q&A, she discussed how GDIT weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. She talked about why it is important to be a company with a soul.
That people are a company’s real differentiator was a central theme in a 2021 podcast interview with her.
A few years ago, I attended a GDIT event saw Gilliland joking with the woman setting up the drinks for the reception after the event. It was obvious from their smiles and the laughter that it was not the first time they had talked.
I have no doubt that Gilliland will land somewhere else with her track record. Wherever that is, they will be lucky to have her.