Current events bring new focus to INDUS President Sridhar

By Jennifer McEntee, San Diego Daily Transcript

Kathy Sridhar says she feels privileged to be doing something, in her own way, about Sept. 11. For Sridhar, the war on terrorism has added a new significance to her work as president of government-related services firm INDUS Technology, Inc. and president of the San Diego chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association.

The work is somehow more rewarding, more imperative.

National events have also meant a shift in the way her company does business with clients including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Spawar, Science Applications International Corp., and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT). While holding up a chain with several photo-identification security passes, Sridhar explains that access to facilities is more difficult than before.

And then there are those things that have stayed the same. Bills are paid in government-time, i.e. slowly, and red tape abounds. "There's this mammoth beast you're dealing with called the government," said Sridhar, 50.

The business of defense has sustained, she said, despite a downturn in other segments of the national economy. "There are ups and downs," Sridhar said, "but I think the defense market is holding steady."

For her company's part, Sridhar says in 2002 INDUS is looking to double its 2001 revenues of $4.1 million, contingent on several key contract bids on the East Coast.

INDUS has won three prime contracts and about nine subcontracts in the last year-and-a-half, Sridhar said.

INDUS got its start in the early 1990s as an engineering-and-technology-focused company, but in 1998 shifted to a services model.

Sridhar credits the addition of James Lasswell, a business adviser turned chief operating officer, with moving INDUS into its latest chapter. As an electrical engineer, Lasswell was the right balance for Sridhar's mechanical engineering background, she said. Today, the 50-employee company divides its tasks between systems engineering, program management and financial services.

With a greater workload, in March INDUS will move its corporate office into a larger space in the Old Town-area building it shares with other companies. INDUS also has several employees on-site at SPAWAR, and at an office in the Washington, D.C. area.

Sridhar says she was "destined for engineering," characterizing herself as a math and science "wiz" in school. Sridhar says her parents weren't too keen on her attending college, but she thought otherwise. She studied mechanical engineering to earn both a bachelor's and master's degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a doctorate from West Virginia University.

Sridhar says she got her doctorate degree so she could teach at the college level. She has held teaching positions at her college alma maters; Florida Technological University; University of Hartford; University of California, Los Angeles; and locally, San Diego State University.

Despite her love of academia, Sridhar was drawn to industry. In 1991 she began her work with INDUS, while teaching part-time at SDSU, and raising her two sons, now ages 14 and 15. In 1993, she stepped away from INDUS to become program manager, and later vice president of product development, for San Diego-based software company Mosaic Mulitsoft Corp. In 1995, she picked up with INDUS again, but also served as a general manager for the San Diego-based subsidiary of the European firm Engineering Systems International until 1998.

Outside of the office, Sridhar contributes her time to trade-related organizations. In addition to her post as president of the local NDIA chapter, she serves on the association's national board of trustees. Additionally, she is a member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, the Military Affairs Advisory Council, and is an applicant for the San Diego Rotary.

Life is not all work and no play for Sridhar. As a recent breast cancer survivor, she has learned to put her life in perspective: she spends time with her children, and sings in barbershop quartets. "The most important thing I do outside of work is being a mom," she said, explaining her roles include homework monitor and "transportation queen."

Life-threatening illness and a national tragedy such as Sept. 11, Sridhar says, "makes you think twice about what you want to do every moment of every day."