Marillyn Hewson

WASHINGTON: Marillyn Hewson, who was unexpectedly propelled into the CEO position at the world’s largest defense company in 2013 and went on to substantially boost Lockheed Martin’s stock price and earn a position as the most powerful woman in defense, is being replaced by a tested CEO already on the company board.

Hewson, who worked hard at boosting her public persona as a business leader, won praise from one of the most experienced defense analysts around. “Marillyn has spent her entire adult life working for Lockheed Martin and its corporate antecedents. In the process, she has become the most powerful and respected executive in the defense sector,” said Loren Thompson, a defense consultant. “She will depart the company on a high note, with all of its business units performing well and its share price several times higher than it was when she became CEO. This is the way an executive wants to be remembered.”

She joined Lockheed Corporation in 1983, before the merger that gave the company its current name.

Here’s how Thompson described Hewson when she rose to CEO:

“She was born in modest circumstances, working her way up by never saying no to an assignment and seldom failing. After holding jobs in three of Lockheed Martin’s four business areas and moving her family eight times, she eventually came to run its biggest operation — the sprawling Electronic Systems unit that generates more revenues and returns than any other part of the company (it surpassed Lockheed’s legendary aeronautics business to become the company’s most profitable operation during her time in charge). Electronic Systems is real big; in fact, if it were an independent company, it would be on the Fortune 200 list.”

Hewson bought legendary helicopter maker Sikorsky during her tenure and has spent much of her tenure successfully managing the dangerous shoals of sequestration, the popular term for the Budget Control Act and all the chaos and uncertainty it generated on defense spending.

The new CEO, who takes the reins in June, has aerospace experience as president of Honeywell Aerospace Services and vice president of engine services at Pratt & Whitney. James Taiclet, a retired Air Force officer who claims more than 5,000 flying hours, is on the board of Lockheed and has served as CEO of a civilian company, American Tower: It is a real estate investment trust that owns cell towers around the world and leases space on them.

Lockheed Martin photo

Jim Taiclet

Before that, Taiclet was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, specializing in telecommunications and aerospace strategy and operations, according to his company bio.

“James Taiclet’s performance at American Tower has been nothing short of spectacular,” Thompson said in an email. “This may be a good time to bring a more commercial sensibility to the world’s biggest military contractor, given the Pentagon’s growing affinity for non-traditional suppliers.”

It’s worth noting that Taiclet is not well known across the defense sector. Several defense analysts we contacted knew nothing about him besides the bare fact he’d been named to the job. But they’re about to find out how he handles the biggest defense contractor of them all.