Mike Lofrumento
Vice President of Contracts, GE Aerospace
Last year, Mike Lofrumento led the transformation of a centralized Contracts and Government Property organization to support GE Aerospace’s $9 billion Defense and Propulsion Technologies portfolio. This restructure unified four separate organizations under a focused vision, aiming to deliver exceptional customer value through transparent and collaborative commercial relationships between GE and its customers.
The early impacts of this vision are evident in the partnership between GE and the U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, resulting in the Army’s first fully commercial acquisition of GE Aerospace engines.
“Contracting is a core function for GE Aerospace’s Defense & Propulsion Technologies organizations, and Mike’s approach has taken the team to the next level,” said Amy Gowder, president and CEO of GE Aerospace’s Defense & Systems organization. “The team has embraced the lean principles of customer focus and respect for people and put them into practice with our customers with strong results.”
Why Watch
Lofrumento and his team are using the principles of FLIGHT DECK to increase efficiencies and make contracting a competitive discriminator for GE Aerospace. FLIGHT DECK is GE Aerospace’s proprietary lean operating model, which seeks to remove waste and continually find the best way to drive value to the customer through proactive problem solving by the entire team. This total team engagement leads to a focused and empowered workforce top to bottom.
“Our goal as an organization is for GE Aerospace to be the customer’s preferred choice due to our world-class products and the efficiency in which they can contract with us,” he said. “Everything our team does on a day-to-day basis is grounded in two core principles: creating value for our customer and having a deep respect for our people. Our goal of driving increased speed and efficiency daily accomplishes both these principles. We are executing this through a two-step method. First, we are removing negotiation complexity to improve customer satisfaction and deepen our relationships. Second, we are empowering our people to do their jobs and solve problems at the appropriate level. Our customers are feeling the difference, and we are seeing positive results.”
Fun fact: Even though Lofrumento grew up in New England, he didn’t start skiing until his mid-30s. Now, he skis with his wife Kristen and their 6-year-old twins, Savannah and Landon. During a ski trip to Aspen, Colorado, his twins fell in love with a Bernese Mountain Dog. As a result, the family adopted a Bernedoodle named Bentley, named after Bentley University, where Lofrumento earned his degrees.