Dear Colleagues,

As we kick off the new fiscal year, I am writing to share with you some changes that are effective immediately.   As Abt Associates continues to expand its global footprint, it is important that we leverage the necessary talent to achieve our strategic objectives.  In that regard, I am pleased to announce  that I have named Rich Small  Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.  Since joining Abt in May  2008, Rich has significantly strengthened the financial position of the company including improving every dimension of our finance and compliance controls and systems.  In addition to his Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer responsibilities, Rich will take on two more responsibilities intended to ensure that we are most competitive in this uncertain market environment:

(1) Pricing Competitiveness Initiative.  Rich will  lead a new pricing competitiveness initiative with input from a broad range of leaders from across the company with the goal of assessing  the competitiveness of our indirect rates, our proposal pricing strategies, and our operating costs,  and

(2) Subsidiary Operating Cost Initiative.  Rich will lead a team focused on assessing how best to leverage the operational platform of Abt Associates and our subsidiaries ( Abt SRBI and Abt JTA) to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. 

Please join me in congratulating Rich on this promotion.

In addition, I am taking the opportunity to revise the titles of two of my direct reports to make them internally consistent and up to date with industry practice.  These title revisions do not change job responsibilities or reporting relationships.

Jay Knott’s title will shift from  Executive Vice President, Global Business, to Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer (CBO);

Mary Maguire’s title will shift from SVP, Strategic Communications to Chief Communications Officer (CCO).

Clarissa Peterson (Chief HR Officer and Chief Ethics Officer) and Mary Harper (Chief Information Officer) will retain their titles. 

All the best for a successful and impactful FY14!

Kathleen

NOTE:  Email sent :bcc to All Staff Abt