WASHINGTON — For the first time in 14 years, Leonardo DRS is undergoing a CEO transition, with longtime exec Bill Lynn stepping aside for John Baylouny, the firm’s current chief operating officer.
The transition, as well as the election of Fran Townsend as the chair of the board, will happen on Jan. 1, according to a statement.
“The company has undergone tremendous transformation under Bill’s leadership and vision. The Board is deeply grateful to Bill for his immense impact on the business and wishes him well in retirement,” Townsend said in the announcement. “The Board of Directors has a strong focus on succession planning, and John’s election as our incoming President & CEO represents a seamless leadership transition.”
DRS, both as an independent entity and then since its 2008 purchase by Italian firm Finmeccanica (now Leonardo), has enjoyed a remarkable run of CEO stability. Mark Newman served as CEO from 1994-2012, when Lynn, fresh off his role as deputy secretary of defense for the first Obama administration, took over.
Now comes Baylouny, who hardly represents a break from stability with the firm, having spent more than 35 years with DRS in some capacity. He has been COO since 2018.
During his time running the company, Lynn oversaw a fundamental shift in how Leonardo DRS functioned. In 2022, he guided the firm into being publicly traded through the purchase of Israeli firm RADA. He also set the firm up as an example of the “mid-tier” defense contractors, regularly appearing at think tank events to champion defense companies that are a level down from the primes.
Since going public, Lynn has advocated for keeping the focus on four key business areas: advanced sensing, network computing, force protection and electric power and propulsion. In an interview with Breaking Defense at June’s Paris Air Show, Lynn indicated he has his eye on further growth for the company.
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“We’ve generated very strong organic growth, margin expansion. We think [the] next step for us, a priority for capital allocation, is to supplement that with inorganic” acquisitions, he said. “Our focus in that is not everything. We are a mid-tier company with four core markets, that’s about right for our size company. So what we would like to do is, rather than add a fifth and a sixth market, what we would focus on is strengthening in those four core markets.”