Northrop Grumman Corp. has named Kathy Warden as its next president and chief operating officer, following the retirement of current President and COO Gloria Flach.
Flach and Corporate Vice President for Government Relations Sid Ashworth will retire effective Dec. 31, 2017, Northrop Grumman said. In addition to promoting Warden, the company will elevate three to corporate VP positions:
- Mark Caylor will be corporate VP and president for mission systems
- Shawn Purvis will be corporate VP and president for enterprise services
- Lesley Kalan will be corporate VP for government relations
“Gloria and Sid have made tremendous contributions to our company, and to our nation,” said Northrop CEO and Chairman Wes Bush. “I want to thank them for their leadership in our company. I am delighted to welcome Kathy, Mark, Shawn and Lesley into their new roles.”
Warden currently serves as the company’s corporate VP and president for mission systems, managing large-scale, mission-critical systems and complex hardware and software products in areas such as command, control, computing, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and cybersecurity.
In her new role, Warden will oversee the company’s three operating sectors as well as the integration of the Orbital ATK business when that merger is complete.
“It was great to see Kathy selected to succeed Gloria as COO,” said Mark HuYoung of Northwind Partners. “Since joining the company almost a decade ago, she has demonstrated a depth of leadership qualities and cultural alignment, through roles of increasing responsibility and turbulent market dynamics, that made her an indubitable internal candidate for the role.”
Before joining Northrop Grumman in 2008, Warden held senior positions at General Dynamics, Veridian and General Electric.
Flach worked for Northrop Grumman for 36 years in engineering and executive positions and was the first female COO in the company’s history.
