NIH's Lee to join consulting firm

After nearly half a century working in the federal government, Leamon Lee is leaving his job heading three successful government contracting vehicles at the National Institutes of Health to join a private consulting firm.

Lee, 69, an expert in developing and marketing contracting vehicles that included Chief Information Officer — Solutions & Partners 2 (CIO-SP 2), Image World and the Electronic Commodity Store III (ECS III), will join the consulting firm of Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates Inc., where he will be doing management consulting beginning next month.

"After 46 years in government, that's long enough," said Lee, associate director of administration at NIH and director of the three government contracting vehicles which does $1.5 billion in business a year.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday night, Lee said he is not leaving government because the Department of Health and Human Services is looking at consolidating various programs and cutting out duplication. He said his program would not be affected, but that it was time to leave because "I've had a great career."

In a memo to his staff, he said, "I have enjoyed and cherished the valuable work relationships, partnerships, and friendships I have developed along the way. It is these relationships that I will miss the most."

Lee has been in his current job since 1993 and developed the successful contracting vehicles for NIH. Prior to that, he worked for the Defense Department where he did the first cost estimate for the F-15 aircraft in 1967. Under his leadership, Lee reconfigured NIH's contracting vehicles to give a boost to more small business contracts and cross-fertilization efforts among contractors.