Unitech picks new president

Universal Systems & Technology Inc. (Unitech), a leading systems engineering and technology training company, has named Nancy Friedman as its president and chief operating officer.

Friedman is well-known in the technology arena. Before joining Unitech, she was president of Unisys Corp.'s U.S. Federal Government Group, an information technology systems integrator in McLean, Va., as well as senior vice president and general manager of Litton Industries Inc.'s commercial information technology division.

Unitech is working on several projects to help the Federal Aviation Administration, including developing a data link—something similar to e-mail—for commercial projects. Officials who are evaluating the Sept. 11 hijacking of four passenger jets acknowledge that they need better communications with the cockpit in event of a hijacking.

"The FAA is fully intending to launch this completely.... I'm new to this company, but not to the quiet heroes of the FAA," said Friedman, who has worked on transportation issues for years.

Unitech also is working on a broad range of training systems with civilian and defense agencies, including developing simulators for the military and interactive multimedia instruction. "We take paper-based training and convert it to interactive CD-ROM training," she said.

In addition to overseeing daily operations, Friedman will help develop and implement strategies for Unitech, which is projecting more than 50 percent growth over last year, when its revenues were nearly $44 million.

Unitech is a private IT solutions company with headquarters in Centreville, Va.