Esterline Corp. [ESL] last week named Curtis Reusser as its next president and CEO, succeeding Brad Lawrence who will remain executive chairman of the board until March 2014.
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| Incoming Esterline President and CEO Curtis Reussser Photo: Esterline |
Reusser is stepping down as president of United Technologies Corp.’s [UTX] $7 billion Aircraft Systems business, a segment of UTC Aerospace Systems. Reusser has been with UTC and the former Goodrich Corp., which was acquired by UTC to form Aerospace Systems, for 25 years.
At Goodrich, Reusser was president of the $2.6 billion Electronic Systems segment. Prior to joining Goodrich, he was with General Dynamics [GD] as an engineer.
UTC said that Reusser has been succeeded by Dave Gitlin, effective immediately. Gitlin previously was senior vice president of Aircraft Systems since its creation last year and led the integration process for UTC since the agreement to acquire Goodrich in 2011.
Esterline’s Lawrence, who is 66, said that Reusser’s 30 years of broad aerospace and defense industry experience “make him the ideal choice” to lead the company into the future.
Reusser will become Esterline’s president and CEO on Oct. 28 and will also be elected to the board of directors. The company, which supplies avionics, sensors and advanced materials to the aerospace and defense industry, had $2 billion in sales in its fiscal year ended last October.
Jefferies aerospace and defense analyst Howard Rubel said in a note to clients that Reusser’s hiring is a positive, pointing out his experience in running a large business and experience at Goodrich with diverse operations, a plus for managing Esterline. Rubel also expects Reusser to bring a more “disciplined approach to managing profitability and returns” based on his experience at UTC.