DynCorp

The personal commitment of each DynCorp employee to our core values creates a consistent and exemplary level of service and ethical conduct, making DynCorp one of the most respected companies in the world. Management buyout takes DynCorp private following a hostile takeover attempt from Miami financier Victor Posner. Growth in local and state government services helps push backlog to $6 billion. DynCorp, one of the largest employee-owned firms in the United States, has not been a very high-profile company, yet its behind-the-scenes logistics support operations for the Defense Department are extensive. The company provides ground support for Air Force One, maintains the State Department's telephones, and contracts coca (cocaine) eradication missions in Colombia. The U.S. Department of Defense accounts for a little less than half of DynCorp's total revenues. Some of DynCorp's earliest customers, such as the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, have remained loyal to the company for more than 50 years. CEO Paul Lombardi expects continued growth, most especially in providing services to state and local governments, due to the lack of a dominant player in that highly fragmented market. California Eastern Airways, Inc. (CEA) was not the only air cargo line started by military pilots returning to the United States after World War II. Nor was it the most enduring, as a purely civil transport enterprise. CEA would diversify, however, into one of the country's most important defense contractors. Within a year of its founding in 1946, California Eastern was serving both coasts. The company participated in the U.S. military airlift during the Korean War. The purchase of Land-Air, Inc. in the early 1950s brought CEA into a new field of technical services. Land-Air operated missile ranges and modified aircraft for government agencies. In 1951, CEA's total revenues exceeded $6 million. The next year, the company merged with Air Carrier Service Corporation (AIRCAR), which sold commercial aircraft and spare parts to foreign airlines and governments. AIRCAR left the civil aviation business in 1957, focusing instead on defense and aerospace engineering, commercial electronics, and data management. By 1961, CEA needed a new name to more accurately reflect its diversified empire. The name Dynalectron Corporation was culled from 5,000 employee suggestions. In 1976, Dynalectron established a headquarters in McLean, Virginia. The company restructured into four main operating groups: Specialty Contracting, Energy, Government Services, and Aviation Services. Dynalectron had made 19 acquisitions in its 30 years. Other projects in which Dynalectron was involved included training helicopter pilots and technicians in Saudi Arabia. By 1981, Dynalectron had acquired another 14 companies, mostly in the aviation services field, which now encompassed cargo handling and aviation fueling. The company also had established a computer component repair business. Two public offerings of stock helped provide the capital for the purchases. Dynalectron adopted the DynCorp name in 1987. The company had become North America's fourth largest electrical contractor; its defense contracting and aviation services businesses were also considerable. In early 1988, a management buyout took DynCorp private again and established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) following a hostile takeover attempt from Miami financier Victor Posner. An investment group led by DynCorp Chairman Jorge E. Carnicero paid $246 million for the company. A restructuring grouped the company, which had 16,000 employees, into Government Services and Commercial Aviation Services divisions. DynCorp instituted a strategy to make it less dependent on defense work: by 1995, according to the plan, 40 percent of its contracts would not be defense-related, the professional services business would grow, and the company would achieve annual sales of $1.2 billion. DynCorp aggressively pursued the em