Textron's chief technologist deploys an identity management system that puts company ahead of the curve Phyllis Michaelides spent 2003 ensuring that Textron’s 44,000 employees are who they say they are. As chief technologist of the $10 billion conglomerate, with divisions that include Bell Helicopter and Cessna, she deployed an ID management system that encompasses both authentication and authorization.Although regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley spurred the project, she wanted Textron to stay ahead of the curve. So she led the creation of an enterprisewide system that uses metadirectories and takes a unified, centralized approach to identity and policy management. But because Textron doesn’t impose a unified infrastructure, her greater challenge is determining where to best share technology. “Finding those core pieces is the most exciting part of my job,” says the two-time CTO 25 honoree. Security