A few months into his new role, Doug Wagoner, the new president and CEO of LMI, joins Aileen Black on Leaders and Legends to talk about leadership and discuss LMI’s commitment to diversity and supporting our nations veterans.

Interview Highlights:

• Wagoner shared his perspective that to be a great leader you need to be “a compass setter not a map maker or a GPS.” He stressed that leaders need to set objectives and set the course. This allows those you lead the latitude to find their way to the objective.

• When asked about great leaders he had worked with in the past, Wagoner didn’t hesitate to share he got his hard work ethic from his parents who owned their own business. He also named some industry giants he has had the honor to work with in the past like, Tony Moraco, retired SAIC CEO, Donna Morea, SAIC chair of the board of directors, and Katherine Rowe, president of William & Mary.

• When asked about being a CEO, Wagoner said that as a CEO you need to provide a clear vision and strategy, but the most important thing is to build the right team around you that share similar values. He also shared his favorite book on leadership, Marshall Goldsmith’s “What got you here won’t get your there: How successful people become even more successful.”

• Wagoner pointed out LMI’s long commitment to service. It was established in 1961 as a service organization to do research for the Department of Defense. LMI continues its dedication to our veterans. More than 25% of its employees are veterans. LMI has a program dedicated to hiring our veterans called Hiring Our Heroes and has won Best Vets employer for 10 consecutive years.

• LMI has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. Wagoner said that “LMI was built on a solid foundation of corporate values—leadership, mission focus, and innovation—with inclusion essential to the functionality and growth of the organization. We celebrate our differences and our similarities. At LMI, we believe everyone in our organization brings diverse perspectives, values, and work and life experiences as well as religious and cultural differences. Our people are our greatest strength. We believe, unequivocally, that our innovation and expertise is fueled by diversity. We remain dedicated to powering a future-ready, high-performing government by delivering integrated capabilities that incorporate emerging technologies and are tailored to customers’ unique mission needs.” He shared his commitment on the LMI website D&I page: https://www.lmi.org/diversity-inclusion

• Wagoner closed the show with his advice for the next generations of CEOs. He said, “My career was a series of progressions to the top. Promotions will come but there will be left and right turns even backwards. These turns gave me the experience I needed to get me to the CEO role. You need a diverse background to be a well rounded CEO.”

• He continued to stress that you need to always keep learning especially in times of crisis and don’t ever be afraid to do the dirty jobs. He shared that you can learn the most from those.

Doug Wagoner is the president and CEO of LMI. Prior to joining LMI in 2020, Wagoner served on the boards of directors of TeraThink Corporation, Thomson Reuters Special Services, and OceanSound Partners. He was sector president at SAIC before he retired in 2017. In this role, Wagoner was responsible for the company’s operations and its over 15,000 consultants and engineers who delivered to clients each day. He oversaw all solution and service delivery for SAIC, including digital transformation, data analytics, cybersecurity, application development, mission systems, platform integration, space systems, logistics, and training/simulation. Prior to being named sector president in 2013, Wagoner led the separation of the legacy SAIC entity, creating Leidos and the new SAIC. Doug previously led SAIC’s Homeland and Civilian Solutions business unit and managed the state, local, and commercial IT business.

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