INTERVIEW
Daniel L. Smith
Position: President
of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Raytheon Co. vice
president
Background: Smith joined Raytheon in 1996 to lead key programs in the Naval & Maritime Integrated Systems before being promoted to vice president and general manager of N&MIS at Raytheon’s plant in Portsmouth in 1999. In 2003 he was promoted to president of Integrated Defense Systems in Tewksbury, Mass. Before joining Raytheon, he worked for General Electric and Lockheed Martin. He also completed 20 years of active and reserve service for the U.S. Navy. He is a Vietnam War veteran.
Education: B.S. in business administration, and M.B.A., Chapman University, California.
Residence: Concord, Mass.
Age: 53
With a growing shortage of math and science teachers at the middle school and high school levels and students’ performance in those subjects suffering, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri created the Blue Ribbon Panel on Mathematics & Science Education in January 2005. He made Daniel Smith, president of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, co-chair of the panel.
As a former lieutenant commander for the U.S. Navy and current vice president at the Raytheon Co., which employs about 40,000 engineers, Smith said he recognizes the importance of emphasizing math and science in the public school system.
The Blue Ribbon Panel recently released 12 recommendations for improving math and science. They included strategies to recruit more math and science teachers, improve the quality of teaching those subjects through prep programs or training, and improve coordination among elementary, middle and high schools and employers who might hire students to ensure students are receiving the right lessons. In addition, the panel recommended that the state budget $17.5 million to improve technology infrastructure (including computers) and teacher training.
In a recent interview with PBN, Smith discussed the need for engineers in today’s work force and steps being taken to produce them.
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PBN: What is Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems?
SMITH: We’re a defense contractor. We provide defense systems in integrated air and missile defense for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force and certain elements of homeland security. Raytheon as a whole has six defense businesses globally. We’re one of the six. In 2005 we were about 20 percent of [Raytheon’s $22 billion] revenue stream. At the plant in Rhode Island there are about 1,700 employees.
PBN: Why did you decide to become co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel?
SMITH: I operated a business that’s in Portsmouth, a Raytheon business which is a high technology growth business for us. … I believe that the initiative that the governor undertook was the right initiative to help the state of Rhode Island in terms of economic development. And it certainly will help my business to be able to acquire the numbers of technical people I need over the next decade.
PBN: Why do you believe the initiative to improve math and science in Rhode Island’s public schools is the right initiative?
SMITH: I believe Rhode Island is part of a geographical corridor in New England that is very deep and rich in technology and innovation, from dot-com industries to defense industries to biochem industries. It’s a very high-tech corridor. With that as a background, the global issue or the national issue for the United States is China graduated something like 5,000 engineers last year, India graduated 2,000, and the United States graduated 500. There are big disparities. Developing nations, particularly in Asia, are graduating more technical people than we are.
PBN: Why is that an issue?
SMITH: If you take the U.S. Department of Labor’s statistics and projections, in 10 years we’ll have 10 times more technical jobs than we have people to fill those jobs. It’s an issue for any company that deals in high technology. The Raytheon population is about 80,000 globally, and engineering is about 50 percent of that.
PBN: What is Raytheon doing to encourage students to pursue a career in engineering?
SMITH: We started MathMovesU, which is a national program that Raytheon funds for seventh- and eighth-graders. And what we are trying to do in that is excite those students using athletic role models [to show] that math is exciting and fun and big-name stars use it. …
We have engineers going into the high schools. We have about 250 of our engineers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island that are in classrooms mentoring students. … We have about 225 summer interns that we hire when they are between senior year in high school and freshman year of college. … We have a program with junior colleges where we’ll take a student, give them a mentorship, and if we can talk them into getting a four-year technical degree, we’ll help them pay for that while they work for us.
PBN: Why is Raytheon investing in these programs?
SMITH: From a Raytheon perspective our involvement is looking ahead 10 years. We have a work force that is aging. … What we’ve found is there are generations of folks where math and science weren’t as emphasized as much as it was for somebody my age. So we’re trying to fill that gap and ensure we have the technical pipeline. When I was growing up we didn’t have an iPod, we didn’t have cell phones. Those are all technical devices, which the kids use every day today, and they take for granted. But if we could get them excited about how you could build one of those and do those kinds of things, then these same kids may be the guys inventing the next cell phone or the next iPod.
PBN: Do you think the plan will work?
SMITH: I believe through Gov. Carcieri’s leadership and sponsorship the Blue Ribbon Panel laid out a very executable, far-reaching plan that if implemented, or when implemented, will provide great benefit to the state of Rhode Island and the New England region as well as setting a template for the rest of the country.
