In late 2019, Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding, or NNS, division became the first shipyard in the nation to enable 5G infrastructure as part of its integrated digital shipbuilding journey. In January, Bharat Amin transitioned from NNS and was named executive vice president and chief information officer, making him HII’s first enterprisewide CIO.
The new position elevated the role of cybersecurity and IT to the highest accountability level. HII CEO Mike Petters quickly recognized cybersecurity risks on the company’s infrastructure and assets as a potential business disruption and established a Cybersecurity Board Committee, where Amin is the company liaison. In February, Amin’s team kicked off its 100-day actions and strategic initiatives plan, and within just a few weeks, was dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
While supporting a remote workforce that grew tenfold nearly overnight because of the pandemic, Amin’s team continued to deliver on its strategic plan. In today’s evolving digital economy, everyone faces various business challenges. Establishing a strategic plan for cybersecurity and IT was key to aligning HII’s portfolio to mitigate contemporary internal and external risks.
Why Watch
Going forward, HII’s cybersecurity and IT team will focus on guarding the company’s digital assets to maintain the trust of shareholders and customers. Doing so empowers HII’s diverse and talented teams to become a force multiplier and leverages its technical capabilities to optimize the enterprise, including maturing 5G at HII’s shipyards, artificial intelligence and business intelligence data analytics, augmented reality and virtual reality, and cloud technology.