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HSToday Profiles ENSCO's Alan Bell

by David Silverberg
Saturday, 31 May 2008

Alan Bell, President and COO, ENSCO, Inc.

When the iron curtain fell, millions of people were liberated—but some industrial companies in the West were liberated, as well and could step into the light of day.

One such company was ENSCO Inc., Falls Church, Va. For a company on the cutting edge of technology, ENSCO has kept a remarkably low profile since it was founded in 1969.

Of course that low profile can be explained by its primary activities during those years: monitoring nuclear weapons testing and developing anti-submarine warfare and signal processing technologies.

“When the iron curtain came down, it was interesting. That was a bit of a shift for us,” recalled Alan Bell, ENSCO's animated and enthusiastic president and chief operating officer. “What we found was that the threat had changed and that, in many ways, many of the things that we did focused on signal processing and were just as applicable in other areas. So instead of looking for submarines under the ocean, we were looking for facilities underground, for example. We were looking for ways to provide sensor data—chemical, biological and nuclear threats—and provide actionable information that would kill false alarms and support those in response mode doing their jobs when something happens.”

Another change was that ENSCO, a privately held company, was ready to step out of the shadows, break from its slow growth of the past and compete in a broader marketplace.

“People tell us we’re one of the best-kept secrets in town,” Bell said, laughing.

Out of secrecy

Bell is leading ENSCO's emergence into the sunlight. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University, he studied geophysics and wrote his Air Force-funded thesis on nuclear treaty monitoring. After a stint at Texas Instruments, he joined ENSCO in 1978 and has been there ever since, rising to his present position two years ago. “I’m a poster boy for ENSCO,” he joked.

Today, with nearly 800 employees and $106 million in 2007 revenues, ENSCO is providing technology that integrates avionics, supports the US space program and provides weather information.

But ENSCO is also very active in fields related to homeland security, turning the expertise it developed during the Cold War toward new and emerging threats.

One of these is its Dalmatian system for first responders. Because there was no accurate way to locate responders at the scene of fires, explosions or other disasters, especially indoors, ENSCO—along with Rex Systems, Chippewa Falls, Wis.— developed Dalmatian to provide responders with a self-contained device that would provide accurate location data without relying on radios or the global positioning system (GPS).

Another ENSCO locating system is called Blue Dog, which it developed to enable military personnel to locate people underground. This is now being adapted for mining operations.

According to Bell, GPS-denied navigation systems constitute a big technology thrust for the company.

When it comes to facility security, ENSCO developed Sentry, a detection system that is tuned to very quiet, very subtle intrusions using a variety of sensors like those for vibration and heat. ENSCO is now adding chemical and radiological sensing into the mix. This system is already protecting the Pentagon.

The company’s MicroSearch system can detect heartbeats in vehicles and containers. Bell likened it to a Star Trek episode during which Spock hunted down intruders on the starship Enterprise by locating their biological vital signs. The real system has numerous applications in border and cargo security.

A third of ENSCO's business is in the rail industry, and the company has developed means of testing and inspecting track integrity, rail car safety and evaluating rail security programs.

One very big issue that is engaging ENSCO—even though it is somewhat outside the realm of homeland security—is the question of measuring climate change. No matter one’s political or scientific position on the question, Bell pointed out that accurate measurement is critical to discussion of the issue, and ENSCO is actively developing and deploying scientific and technological means to provide factual data.

“Regardless of how significant it is as a political issue, you get a sense that it’s a good thing to be working on. It means things to the people who work for the company, and that’s very important to us,” he related.

“Our people like to work on stuff that’s really important to them,” he continued. “One of my roles in the company is to look out and identify some of these things, bringing them forward. These are issues out here; these are our capabilities over here. How do we take our capabilities and make them coincide well with the unmet needs we’ll be facing down the road?”

It’s a question Bell and ENSCO will be answering for many years to come. HST

About ENSCO, Inc.

ENSCO, Inc. provides engineering, science and advanced technology solutions for the defense, security, transportation, environment, and aerospace industries. Founded in 1969, with revenues of more than $100 million, ENSCO is an 800-person, privately owned corporation. Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., ENSCO has major offices in Springfield, Va., Endicott, N.Y., Melbourne, Fla. and Cocoa Beach, Fla.; field offices throughout the United States; and sales representatives in 15 countries selling ENSCO products to a wide range of customers. More about ENSCO