Lockheed Martin announced today that Chief Information Officer and Enterprise Information Systems President Joseph Cleveland and Lockheed Martin Information Technology President Linda Gooden have been selected as two of the '50 Most Important Blacks in Technology' by the editors of US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine. Honorees are chosen for this annual list based on their work in making technology part of global society.

The honorees will gather at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference for a colloquium and awards dinner on Friday, Feb. 18 in Baltimore, Md., to discuss initiatives aimed at increasing Black entrepreneurship, executive development and educational readiness for the "Digital Economy." Through their selection to the '50 Most Important Blacks in Technology' list, Cleveland and Gooden will be presented to young people as role models and their accomplishments will be upheld as examples of the important contributions made on a daily basis by the millions of Blacks in high-tech jobs around the world.

In addition to outlining the IT strategic direction for the Corporation, Cleveland oversees Lockheed Martin's internal information technology service provider, Enterprise Information Systems, which is responsible for providing technology-based solutions to the corporation's businesses. Based in Orlando, Fla., Enterprise Information Systems operates one of the world's largest Windows NT networks, processes more than three million e-mail messages per day, and manages over 100 million lines of code to maintain system reliability on a 24x7 schedule.

As Lockheed Martin's focal point for information technology, Gooden leads a fast-growing, 11,000-employee organization located in more than 50 major locations providing enterprise business systems, managed services, business process outsourcing and infrastructure solutions to civil and defense agencies across the U.S. federal government.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2004 sales of $35.5 billion.

For additional information on Lockheed Martin Corporation, visit: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/.

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Corporation