WASHINGTON, DC – To ensure that the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) remains at the cutting-edge of information technology advances
and capabilities, the Director of Central Intelligence, George
J. Tenet, today joined Gilman G. Louie, President and
CEO of In-Q-It, and Lee A. Ault, III, Chairman of In-Q-It's
Board of Trustees, in announcing the official launch of In-Q-It,
Inc., a private, independent, non-profit corporation that will
network and develop partnerships with information technology leaders
in industry and academia to work on projects of mutual interest
to both the CIA and the commercial marketplace.
"In many ways, the needs of the business and the CIA are quickly
converging," said Louie, the former Chief Creative Officer of
Hasbro Interactive, Inc. "As these two entities look for ways
to find answers to similar problems, In-Q-It will work to be the
bridge that will allow our brightest minds to work on some of
our nation's toughest problems to foster creativity."
DCI Tenet added: "The rapid and unprecedented pace of technological
change and the evolution of our national security environment
dictates a change in the way the intelligence community does business.
In-Q-It answers this challenge by creating an innovative engine
for the community to work together with individuals, industry
and academia to explore new and unconventional approaches to common
problems."
"In-Q-It is revolutionary in that, although In-Q-It will work
with CIA, it is not tied to the CIA's organizational style and
structure," continued Louie. "Because In-Q-It is a private company,
we will be able to work in Internet time and structure ourselves
in a manner that will be familiar to many of the information technology
companies we hope to attract as partners."
The initial work program will target four areas: use of the Internet,
information security, knowledge generation, and distributed architectures.
"The CIA is not the only entity looking for answers to these
problems," added Ault. "Our challenge will be to reach out to
the information technology community and work with them to develop
tools jointly to solve these challenges for the benefit of our
country, our companies, and our citizens."
In-Q-It's efforts will be overseen by a Board of Trustees made
up of leading members of the business and academic communities.
In addition to Ault, former chairman and CEO of Telecredit, Inc.,
other members of the board include: Norman Augustine, former
Chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin; John Seely Brown,
Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation and President, Xerox PARC Research
Center; Michael Crow, Executive Vice Provost of Columbia
University; Stephen Friedman, Senior Principal of Marsh
& McLennan Capital, Inc., and former Chairman of Goldman Sachs
and Co.; Paul Kaminski, President and CEO of Technovation,
Inc., Senior Partner in Global Technology Partners, and former
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology; Jeong
Kim, President of Carrier Network, part of the Lucent Technologies
Corporation, and former founder of Yurie Systems; John McMahon,
consultant to the Lockheed Martin Corporation and a former Deputy
Director of Central Intelligence; Alex Mandl, Chairman
and CEO of Teligent; and William Perry, a Senior Fellow
at the Hoover Institution, the Michael and Barbara Berberian Professor
at Stanford University with a joint appointment in the Department
of Engineering-Economic Systems/Operations Research and the Institute
for International Studies, and a former Secretary of Defense.
Jody R. Westby, former Senior Fellow and Director, Information
Technology Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and
Director, Domestic Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is
In-Q-It's Chief Administrative Officer and Counsel.
In-Q-It is based in Washington, DC, and expects to open an office
in Silicon Valley in November 1999.
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