Executive Mosaic is proud to name Northrop Grumman Chairman, CEO and President Kathy Warden to its 2024 Wash100 list for her strategic, growth-oriented leadership strategy and her keen attention to military innovation. This is Warden’s ninth year appearing on the Wash100 list, placing her in the top echelon of all-time Wash100 recipients.
GovCon’s most exciting competition has begun! Cast your vote for Kathy Warden as your favorite 2024 Wash100 Award winner at Wash100.com. The winner of the popular vote competition will be announced in May.
The coveted Wash100 Award annually recognizes the most outstanding and promising executives working in the U.S. government and government contracting sectors. These individuals are added to the prestigious Wash100 list based on their leadership, innovation, reliability, vision and achievements.
“Kathy is among our industry’s winningest Wash100 awardees, earning this distinction an astonishing 9 times since the award’s inception,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award. “She is among the most nationally recognized executives not only in GovCon but also as a leadership speaker and expert.”
Garrettson continued, “Kathy is leading Northrop Grumman into a new era of significant expansion, innovation and growth supporting our military’s most critical missions. With Northrop’s B-21 Raider success, its new manufacturing facility in Waynesboro and $39 billion in 2023 sales, the company is well positioned to surpass its growth targets and notably shape the GovCon landscape in the coming year and beyond. We recognize Kathy’s vision and innovation with this Wash100 Award.”
Warden has spent more than 15 years at Northrop Grumman, and she has held her current position since 2019. In the past year, Warden has driven significant growth for the company through key contracts, sales and expansion efforts.
Northrop Grumman is included on GovCon Index, the GovCon sector’s first-ever interactive tool to track the financial health of the market. Visit GovConIndex.com for more information and financial insights.
Northrop Grumman reached $10.6 billion in sales for the fourth quarter of 2023 and $39.3 billion in sales for the full year, which represents an increase of seven percent year-over-year.
“Our team delivered a strong finish to the year in 2023,” said Warden. “We generated free cash flow at the high end of our guidance range, significantly exceeded our sales guidance and beat EPS consensus absent the B-21 charge we identified as a possibility this time last year. With sustained global demand for our products, our 2024 guidance reflects continued strong sales and earnings growth.”
Warden noted that in the first quarter of 2023, the company’s space, mission and aeronautics businesses drove a significant portion of Northrop’s $9.3 billion in revenue for the quarter. Sales from Northrop’s space business reached $3.3 billion for the quarter, mission systems hit $2.56 billion, aeronautics amounted to $2.51 billion and defense contracts sales reached $1.3 billion.
Northrop has also built upon the recent success of its B-21 Raider, despite the program’s initial losses. Warden said in July that through the B-21 program, the company had successfully demonstrated the use of digital tools related to advanced manufacturing technologies to realize 15 percent labor efficiencies in an area of the build.
In January 2024, the Department of Defense’s Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante — a fellow 2024 Wash100 awardee — announced that the B-21 was approved to begin low-rate initial production following an initial flight test in 2023.
Looking ahead, Northrop Grumman just broke ground on a new $200 million manufacturing facility in Waynesboro, Virginia that will focus on manufacturing and testing advanced electronics.
“This new facility will increase capacity to manufacture and test advanced electronics and mission solutions to meet our customers’ growing needs. We are pleased to expand our technology presence in the Commonwealth and look forward to welcoming more people to our mission-driven team,” said Warden.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Kathy Warden and Northrop Grumman on their selection to the 2024 Wash100 list.
