Low-key leader guides CACI’s growth

Paul Cofoni comes across as a soft-spoken, cerebral chief executive - not exactly what one would expect from a point man in the war on terror.

“We’ve always lived in dangerous times,” said Mr. Cofoni, whose job as a young Army captain in Germany in the early 1970s was to launch nuclear-armed Nike-Hercules missiles at Soviet bombers in the event of World War III.

“We always will live in dangerous times,” he said, recalling how he lived with his family near the dividing line between East and West during the Cold War.

CACI International Inc., the Arlington company he leads, has grown along with the dangers.

What was for decades a small, low-profile defense contractor has evolved into a larger, more diverse company with brand-name recognition since Sept. 11, 2001.

CACI provides everything from civilian databases to cyberwarfare countermeasures to training for Army recruits going into battle for the first time.

That growth, overseen by Mr. Cofoni’s long-time predecessor, Jack London, now executive chairman, requires a transition from small, niche innovator to a larger company offering a broader suite of products and services to government, military and intelligence clients.

Mr. Cofoni, CACI’s chief executive officer since 2007, now must manage that growth. He approaches the job as a team-builder rather than a table-pounder, based in part on lessons learned under two very different coaches during his high school football days.

His management-speak sounds a lot like football-speak.

“Mostly when I’ve seen organizations get in trouble is when things go through cracks,” he told The Washington Times in a recent interview.

“And things go through the cracks when people don’t care about each other. They see their lane and they think they’re being evaluated on their lane but they don’t worry about the seam between their lane and the next person’s lane,” he said.

“Cost of operation is higher along the seams and so if you work the seams and make the seams seamless, things don’t fall through the cracks and you’re operating at a high level of efficiency,” he said.

“That is my style. I didn’t get it all at once, I got it mostly from scar tissue,” he said. “Barking tends to set up fear levels in people and shuts them down as opposed to letting them … come to the obvious conclusions, just making sure they have the right data.

“I’m not a table-pounder. There was a day when I was a table-pounder, but I got tired and I got wise and gave it up. My style of management is more of an inclusive, team-building style,” he said.

But don’t let the light touch fool you.

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