The proposed company would set up and support computer systems. Kendall understood technology, but he was not a techie. He was a numbers guy. Then Kendall added up the number of federal agencies and local companies with little computer capability. "It was very apparent the way the world was going," Kendall says. He quit his job and signed on as one of the founders of Computer Data Systems Inc. (CDSI), ready to help the feds and other clients key their way into the computer age.

In 1970, CDSI's board asked Cliff Kendall to run the company. He offered to give it a try for six months - and stayed in the job as president and CEO for the next 18 years.

In 1988 he gave up the presidency but remained CEO. In 1991 he became chair of the board, and he still serves on it after resigning as chair in 1997. In 1970 CDSI had 100 employees and annual revenues of more than $400,000. Today CDSI is a subsidiary of Dallas based Affiliated Computer Services. Now called the ACS Government Solutions Group, it has about 5,000 employees and almost $570 million in annual revenues.

Kendall has always been involved in the Washington community. Selected as the 1996 Leader of the Year by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Kendall has served on the High Technology Council of Maryland, the George Washington University Board of Trustees, and the Board of Regents of the University of Maryland. He has also worked for the Community Foundation, the Salvation Army, and other community groups.

Kendall says he is proud that "four company founders turned into 5,000 jobs." But more important to him was the company's family atmosphere: "Almost all of the officers came from within the company." Growth enabled CDSI to get bigger and better contracts.

But size was never Cliff Kendall's main goal. "We didn't want to be the biggest," he says, "but to be the best."