October 8, 2001


Media Contact: Dolores Davies, (858) 534-5994 or ddavies@ucsd.edu


SAIC FOUNDER & CEO J.R. BEYSTER TO SPEAK
AT UCSD ECONOMICS ROUNDTABLE OCT. 16


Dr. J. Robert Beyster, founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of San Diego-based Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), one of the largest and fastest-growing employee-owned companies in the world, will discuss "Inside San Diego High-Tech: The SAIC Story" at the Oct. 16 UCSD Economics Roundtable. The Roundtable will be held at 7:30 a.m. at the UCSD Faculty Club and includes a continental breakfast.

Beyster, who worked as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, founded SAIC in 1969 as a scientific consulting firm with a handful of government contracts for nuclear power and nuclear weapons effects study programs. Over the years, the company has expanded its scope of work dramatically. Today, the company's business includes national security programs, non-nuclear energy studies, health care systems, environment-related businesses, information technologies, telecommunications, transportation, and high technology and e-business products.

SAIC, the San Diego high tech community's biggest success story, now employs more than 41,000 employees with offices in over 150 cities worldwide. Last year, the company's revenues totaled $5.9 billion. Net income for fiscal year 2001 grew to $2.1 billion. While Beyster could have followed the more traditional approach of closely holding the stock of the company among himself and a small cadre of senior managers, when he founded the company he instead chose to reward the performance of all employees with stock ownership.

Beyster's belief in employee ownership led him to create the Foundation for Enterprise Development (F.E.D.), a non-profit organization he formed in 1986 to foster employee ownership and participation. The Foundation provides advice and resources to companies that are starting employee ownership programs or using equity compensation as a motivational tool.

To make reservations for the Oct.16 program or for more information about the UCSD Economics Roundtable, please contact Edie Munk at (858) 822-0510 or emunk@ucsd.edu. The cost to attend the breakfast event is $50. Members of the news media are invited to attend free of charge but must make reservations in advance.