Chief Executive magazine has named Lockheed Martin’s chief, Marillyn Hewson, its CEO of the year.
Hewson joins Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Anne Mulcahy and Andy Grove among other high-profile winners of the award. Mark Weinberger, CEO of EY and a member of the selection committee, said Hewson has proved to be “an exceptional role model and exceptional person — something we need in business, especially today.”
Hewson hit her five-year anniversary at the Lockheed Martin Corp. helm in January. In that time, she is credited with righting the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and boosting production volume (and Reuters reports the Department of Defense is once again accepting deliveries of the jets after reaching an agreement to cover costs to fix a production error), while its stock soars north of $320 per share.
Last year, Hewson oversaw a record year for sales ($51 billion), orders ($54 billion) and cash from operations ($6.5 billion) at the world’s largest defense contractor, all of which factored into her 11 percent pay hike to $22.8 million in total compensation. And while the company’s profits dipped year over year in 2017 and investors were hoping to see higher cash flow projections, Lockheed started off the year with improved forecasts, of a potential $50.35 billion to $51.85 billion in sales for the year.
Beyond the financials, the Chief Executive magazine selection committee cited Hewson’s performance leading Lockheed through profound political and technological change, and the subsequent impact on Lockheed’s operations.
Read More