Whittaker CEO Steps Down to Refocus : Defense: Joseph F. Alibrandi will guide company’s development of commercial businesses.

Whittaker Corp., seeking to reduce its reliance on defense spending and further develop its commercial businesses, said Monday that Joseph F. Alibrandi will relinquish his post as chief executive in order to focus on long-term strategy.

Thomas A. Brancati, 58, now the Los Angeles-based company’s president and chief operating officer, will assume the chief executive post Jan. 1. Alibrandi, 66, chief executive for the past 20 years, will continue as chairman and will remain active in the company to help guide it “through its current expansion and future opportunities,” the company said.

The change reflects in part the company’s resolve to boost its revenue from commercial products, said Donald H. Newman, an analyst for Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. in New York.

Whittaker, which makes fluid control systems, defense electronic systems and other aerospace products, has been hurt in recent years by cuts in defense spending and in aircraft production by companies such as Boeing, which Whittaker supplies. Accordingly, it has increasingly turned its attention to what Brancati calls its “newest thrust into telecommunications.”

“By turning over operating duties to (Brancati), it relieves (Alibrandi) to focus more as chairman on a larger strategy for the company,” Newman said.

Brancati said the company’s strategy remains set despite any change in command. That strategy “emphasizes entry into the telecommunications field . . . through both internal development and outside acquisition,” he said.

Whittaker has been using defense technology applications to develop products designed for the so-called information superhighway, Brancati said. The company recently developed for Pacific Bell a video file server designed to store and retrieve video data.

“Whittaker is very high on commercial and (telecommunications) potential right now,” analyst Newman said. “And these are the areas that (Brancati) offers a great deal of expertise” in.

Alibrandi “is still the largest single shareholder in the company,” Newman said. “This is clearly a move forward on his part.”

Whittaker stock inched up 12.5 cents per share Monday to close at $19.25 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has risen from $13.50 earlier in the year.

Brancati joined Whittaker in 1987 as president of its electronic systems unit. In 1993, he was named president.

In addition to serving as chief executive of Whittaker since 1974 and chairman since 1985, Alibrandi has been a vocal civic leader lauded for his tireless efforts for education reform in California.

The Bel Air resident led an unsuccessful effort last year to allow parents to send their children to the school of their choice.