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As president of ITT Industries Defense since October 2005, Steven Gaffney ’96 is responsible for managing a $3.5 billion global defense operation with 16,000 employees in over 125 locations on six continents.
Gaffney has been honored three times by ITT’s chairman and chief executive officer with the ITT Chairman’s Award, twice for leadership and once for growth.
“It is truly a privilege for me to serve in this position,” he says. “It allows me to fulfill my commitment to my country and a team as well as my desire to make a difference. I am humbled to work with some of the best minds imaginable. I most enjoy that our company provides the products and services to help our men and women in harm’s way to be safe and return home to their families. My customers are the dedicated men and women of our armed forces, and there is nothing I enjoy more than to get a note or an email from one of them thanking me for one of the products or services that we provided to bring them home safely.”
His career has taught him about some of the keys to success.
“What I try to live most is having the courage and will to make a difference,” he says. “I have also learned that emotional intelligence dictates a person’s success in life. It’s not about what you know that makes a difference in life or business. It’s about leadership, which is in turn being customer focused and strategic, leading with character, building through teamwork, resolving conflicts in support of a common mission, and inspiring commitment. And it’s about delivering results. Finally, I have learned that it is important to balance my work and family life. My family is important to me and they inspire me to be the best that I can be.”
His family and his days at Lafayette are intertwined in one of Gaffney’s most memorable moments.
“One of the highlights of my life was having my wife and four children attend my graduation ceremony,” says Gaffney, an electrical engineering major. “It was a moment that I will never forget.”
His son Stephen ’07 is a double major in government & law and economics and business.
Gaffney says several members of the faculty had a profound influence on him during his time at Lafayette.
“Professors Warren Guy and Bill Hornfeck both consistently exhibited the highest ethical standards and a genuine zeal to make a difference in the lives of their students. I am indebted to Dr. Hornfeck for believing in my potential and dedicating himself to my success. He invested his time and energy in me and helped me structure a curriculum that allowed me to succeed with my education,” he says. “I learned what it took to be an exceptional engineer from Dr. Guy. His easygoing personality and well-structured lectures inspired me to want to glean every nugget of knowledge he had to offer.”
Gaffney believes his time at Lafayette gave him the courage and will to become the person he is today. He will continue to use those strengths in the future.
“Those years stand as the cornerstone of much of my current thinking,” he says. “Often times I am confronted with difficult situations and am reminded of a lecture or experience from my days at Lafayette. Wherever I am in the future, I want to be making a difference in the world by building new and stronger leaders for the future. There is no greater satisfaction for me than to see someone that I have been working with succeed to their highest potential.”
Steve Gaffney ’96