Federal 100: James (Jim) P. Derr
Name: James (Jim) P. Derr
Title: Director of Aviation Services, Information Systems and Global Solutions
Company: Lockheed Martin
Improved safety and big savings. Derr oversees a program that is on track to save the Federal Aviation Administration $2 billion over 10 years. He helped consolidate 58 flight locations into five networks by automating flight briefings and moving communication tasks between specialists and pilots, along with weather updates and other information, from a telephone- and radio-based process to the Web. As a result, "specialists remain focused on providing safety briefings instead of managing phones, and pilots generally wait just seconds to talk to a specialist when they call," said Sandra Samuel, vice president of transportation solutions at Lockheed Martin.