At the helm of Leidos, one of the major players in the government contracting market, CEO and Chairman Roger Krone is spearheading the company’s growth and guiding the organization through an era marked by heightened competition both within the GovCon ecosystem and on the global stage.
Under Krone’s leadership, Leidos has doubled its revenue to more than $13 billion and expanded its workforce to more than 44,000 employees worldwide. Executive Mosaic spoke with Krone, the winningest Wash100 Award recipient in the accolade’s 10-year history, to find out more about his strategy, where the GovCon market is heading and what’s on the horizon for global defense.
In the last few years, global powers have stepped up to the plate and begun to challenge the clear overmatch established by the U.S. “For decades, the United States enjoyed a technological advantage in those areas that were important to parity in the world. We had an advantage in our weapons systems in many of the warfighting domains,” said Krone in an exclusive video interview with Executive Mosaic.
“What has happened unfortunately is increased R&D investment, increased defense spending by non-allied nations,” Krone revealed, which has allowed these competitors to catch up to the U.S. and even, in some cases, take the lead in many technology areas.
For example, the U.S. is still in the beginning stages of developing hypersonic weapons, while other countries have already successfully launched hypersonics of their own.
Krone’s take on the path forward involves shifting the Department of Defense’s focus toward emerging technologies — particularly in newly-established warfighting domains like space and cyber — and passing “stable, predictable, well-funded defense budgets” to support those technologies.
Thankfully, Krone said the funding is certainly coming in. “We’re actually seeing the largest defense budget in the history of the nation,” he explained. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act allocated $817 billion to the Department of Defense, and Krone said we’re seeing a four percent year-over-year increase to the defense budget.
Hear Krone’s thoughts on our biggest threats in space, the hurdles of implementing zero trust and which trends are shaping the future of the GovCon market by watching his full video interview here. Don’t miss conversations with the leaders of GovCon — subscribe to Executive Mosaic’s YouTube channel here.
To vote for Roger Krone as your favorite GovCon executive and 2023 Wash100 Award winner, visit Wash100.com.
