L3 Technologies [LLL] on Thursday said it has established boards in three countries to help focus its international growth in key regions.
“We continue to focus on accelerating L3’s international business by strengthening our customer relationships and forging productive partnerships in key regions,” Christopher Kubasik, president and CEO of L3, said in a statement.
The new boards are in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, three of the 10 countries L3 is targeting for its international growth. During L3’s investor conference in December, Kubasik said that some of the other countries include Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
“In many cases, we have a presence or will have a presence to better accelerate our growth,” Kubasik said at the Dec. 5 conference. L3’s investor presentation included a slide projecting sustained growth in addressable international budges for the company, going from an estimated $204 billion in 2017 to $241 billion in 2022, with the potential work driven by operations and maintenance needs followed by procurement.
L3’s board in Australia will be led by Alan Titheridge, managing director, to build on ongoing support for the Australian Defense Force and growing the company’s workforce and supplier base there. In Canada, the board will be led by Richard Foster, chair, with a focus on expanding L3’s customer base across an existing broad portfolio of products and services.
In the UK, L3’s board will be led by Ronald Cook, managing director, with a focus on expanding ISR systems work, pilot training and resourcing solutions for the global commercial and military aviation training market.
Each board will be composed of L3 executives and local industry experts.
In 2016, 24 percent of L3’s sales were from international customers, 17 percent related to its defense business and 7 percent from commercial work. L3 said international business would be down in 2017. In 2018, international and commercial business is expected to account for 31 percent of L3’s projected $9.95 billion in sales.
Kubasik assumed the CEO role this week, taking over for Michael Strianese, who remains chairman. At the investor conference, Kubasik said L3 will be “aggressive” in its pursuit of international markets.
Kubasik said then he had recently been in Japan, Taiwan and Singapore with his team and that in early 2018 he will be in the Middle East, “building relationships, reestablishing relationships.”
Of his trip to Asia, Kubasik said, “These countries…do not have large budgets. They want things quickly. They want things that are interoperable, and in some cases, they want to take existing platforms and make them better, and that’s in our sweet spot.”
As an example of Kubasik’s personal commitment to international business, Todd Gautier, president of the company’s Electronic Systems segment, said in his prepared remarks during the investor presentation that he had a meeting with an overseas company and despite a busy schedule, Kubasik flew in for a 90-minute meeting and then flew back.
“He made that trip for [the] relationship and spent four hours in the country,” Gautier said. “Very, very unusual to find a cohesive leadership team that’s going to focus that much on the customer.”