Gerald "Jerry" Lane has spent most of his career working for someone else. He recently turned that equation around by working for himself running Great Lakes Systems & Technology, a defense technology firm. Now he is aiming to build a team of employees under him.
"I want to turn the business into a prime contractor and build unmanned systems," Lane says. "I want to bid on these projects as a prime contractor."
A prime contractor is licensed to hold direct government contracts and to divvy out the work to other subcontractors. Great Lakes Systems & Technology currently services small business in the defense sector that need a marketing/manufacturing representative, engineering, business development and project management. The Chesterfield Township-based firm currently serves a handful of firms of various sizes, but Lane declined to name any of them because of confidentiality agreements. It also works with the annual
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition at Oakland University.
Lane has spent most of the last few decades doing that sort of work for larger firms that are centered around the
TARDEC and
TACOM facilities in Warren. He struck out on his own last year by starting Great Lakes Systems & Technology.
"It was certainly my strong suit," Lane says. "I am very well connected in the ground vehicle community. I started in TARDEC in 1976."
He plans to put together a small team by the end of this winter so he can become a prime contractor for the U.S. government.
Source: Gerald "Jerry" Lane, president & owner of Great Lakes Systems & Technology
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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