Lucent Technologies Inc. said yesterday that it has created a separate unit to serve federal government customers and named an executive of Digital Equipment Corp. to run the business, which employs about 600 people in metropolitan Washington.
James R. O'Neill, 42, is expected to run the new Government Solutions business from an office in Silver Spring, a Lucent spokeswoman said. He will take over the business next week.
After Basking Ridge, N.J.-based Lucent was spun off from AT&T Corp. last year, its executives decided it would be more efficient to serve federal customers by lumping all federal sales into a single business unit, rather than having staffers from different subsidiaries selling distinct products and services to the government.
O'Neill was vice president and general manager of Digital's Federal Government Region, Lucent said, and he had worked for the Massachusetts-based computer firm since 1986.
O'Neill has spent 20 years in government contracting. Before joining Digital, he spent 10 years at a company that is now a unit of Lockheed Martin Corp., itself a major government supplier.
Pub Date: 1/15/97
