CSA Engineering awarded CSA Engineering awarded (June 07, 2002)

By Margy Olmstead

CSA Engineering of Mountain View stands apart: amid all the business fumbling and failings of the past couple of years, CSA has, among other things, prospered, turned a profit and won an award.

With a staff of 40 employees, CSA was given the National Small Business Prime Contractor Award at the 35th annual U.S. Small Business Administration Industry/SBA Procurement Conference in Washington D.C. in May.

Locally, on Thursday, May 30, Mayor Sally Lieber, representatives from state and Federal governments and the military gathered at CSA headquarters on Leghorn Street to present Conor Johnson, CSA CEO, with official documents proclaiming CSA to be the cream of the small business crop.

CSA specializes in vibration and noise suppression solutions critical to sensitive machinery and devices including the Hubble Space Telescope, military aircraft, and space launch and orbit technology.

"Satellites are very delicate and we shoot it into space on the top of a roman candle. Imagine what happens to all those delicate mechanisms. CSA has technology that stops the rocket's vibrations from destroying the satellite," explained Kyle Henderson of the Air Force Research Laboratory:

"Small businesses like CSA are the backbone of the defense industry, " stated Lt. Col. Michael Luft, Defense Contract Management Agency. "Think about soldiers in war, they are the 'tip of the spear' and everything done at (CSA) helps further the war on terrorism; your products are key to our national defense."

CSA (which stands for the no longer used phrase 'combined system analysis') was founded in November1982 by three Ph.D. engineers Conor Johnson, Warren Gibson, and David Kienholz. Organized around the core values that reputation is paramount, and long-term customer relationships venerated the company is profitable, free of debt and most of the stock is held by employees.

"There are things you do every day at CSA that affect many peoples' lives," commented Mayor Lieber, " I would like CSA to stay and grow in Mountain View."