SPARTA celebrates 25 years, its Huntsville start
One of Huntsville's true success stories celebrated a milestone last week.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Officially, SPARTA turned 25 years old last year. But the defense company that began in Huntsville decided to celebrate all year, holding its formal 25th anniversary celebration last week at the Huntsville Museum of Art.
"We wanted to save the best for last,'' said Robert Sepucha, CEO of SPARTA. "We decided it would be appropriate to wrap it up where it all started - here in Huntsville.''
What began as a small defense company operating out of a home is now doing defense work in protecting our nation in a number of different areas - whether it's analyzing missile defense systems or doing intelligence work.
"It's a true example of the American dream,'' said U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, who was here to take part in last week's event.
This company's product - like the work done by so many others here - is protecting our country.
Since SPARTA was formed in Huntsville in 1979, it has grown to 19 offices and approximately 1,400 employees nationwide. SPARTA's headquarters is now in California, but it still has more than 300 employees in Huntsville. The company has seen 20 percent growth over the past three years and did $250 million in business during the past year.
Wayne Winton started the company in Huntsville, along with Bob Vickery in California. The company was headquartered in their respective homes for the first couple of months. Winton remains chairman of the board at SPARTA.
"(Winton) lived here and his area of expertise was missile defense,'' said Sepucha, who joined SPARTA in 1991 and became CEO in 2001. "He decided when he started the company, he naturally wanted to stay here rather than go to Washington. This was before President Reagan's "Star Wars'' speech and the level of interest and funding for missile defense wasn't very high.
"But the Army persisted and continued to work on missile defense. That's why it plays such a huge role in missile defense here today.''
Missile defense work still represents about 45 percent of the work for SPARTA, which stands for Systems Planning, Analysis, Research and Technology Association. But it also works in intelligence, technical services, tactical systems, space systems, hardware systems and homeland security.
The biggest change in defense work since SPARTA's beginning was the demise of the Soviet Union. "Now we're being confronted with terrorists and a host of other kinds of problems that we never dreamed would be in the picture.''
Increased funding has also dramatically changed defense work.
Sepucha says when he got into the defense business in the early 1970s, it was pretty grim. "You had to skimp and scratch for every contract; the agencies and services just didn't have the money. But the Reagan administration came on board and started building up the defense establishment.''
National intelligence work is now a big part of SPARTA's work, along with missile defense.
"The work we do here is taking a look at foreign missile systems and trying to understand how they work and how we can counter them,'' said Sepucha, who lived in Huntsville back in the 1970s. "In Washington, we're more in the information security area - how we protect information on computers, how easy is it for some people to get inside our information and gain access to it, and how easy it would be for them to destroy it.''
One of the things that has served the company well was Winton's decision to make it employee owned. "If you're successful, you own a share of SPARTA,'' Sepucha said. "You can make a difference.''
Looking to the future, Sepucha said it's important that the company continues to have a steady flow of young, talented people.
And he says SPARTA's future in Huntsville is bright. The Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, could bring more work and jobs to SPARTA's operations in Huntsville, according to Sepucha.
"You have a good thing going on here,'' he said. "Huntsville really is a marvelous place to raise a family and it's got a niche. The people in Huntsville are still doing good, solid engineering. And they are working on problems that are important to the nation.''
That's the kind of work that SPARTA takes pride in.
"We like to think we're helping to make an important contribution,'' said Sepucha. "And I think we are.''
Business Editor Wayne Smith can be reached by phone at 532-4415, or e-mail at waynes@htimes.com.
© 2005 The Huntsville Times
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