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Celebrating 25 Years

GCN Home > 10/07/02 issue

Where are they now...

Albert Edmonds

By Nancy Ferris, Special to GCN

Retired Lt. Gen. Al Edmonds spent 24 years in the Air Force, specializing in communications systems, but his last nine years were devoted to broader DOD organizations.

After serving as director of command, control and communications for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he became the second director of the Defense Information Systems Agency. At DISA, he spearheaded development of the Defense Information Infrastructure, which includes the Defense Information Systems Network and the Global Command and Control System. It was on his watch that DISA turned off the old Worldwide Military Command and Control System, which had outlasted its technology.

Today, Edmonds is president of U.S. government solutions for Electronic Data Systems Corp. The Texas global services company has more than 11,000 employees supporting federal, state and local governments nationwide.

Edmonds’ thoughts: “When I got into the IT field years ago, I could not have imagined the explosive growth of the technology or the industry. IT is growing exponentially, spurred on by our desire for faster, more efficient and more secure systems.

“This newfound capacity is itself creating rapid advances in other areas: medicine, transportation, education, security and privacy, manufacturing and government.

“Looking forward, I see tremendous growth potential in the area of mobility—the merging of communications and information technologies. The greatest advances are still to come in improved people care from health care to entitlements and command, control and intelligence systems for cyberwarfare.

“The government will play a key role in this space for the foreseeable future because citizens will demand the services they see advertised by industry.”

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