By Emelie Rutherford
Robert Helm is leaving his post as Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] top lobbyist, a surprise move that comes as the firm undergoes organizational changes.
Defense-industry insiders said they do not believe Helm’s retirement, announced within Northrop Grumman yesterday, is directly linked to the company’s recent exit from the competition for the $40 billion KC-X Air Force tanker contract.
“Bob Helm announced his intention to retire from Northrop Grumman,” company spokesman Randy Belote told Defense Daily. “Clearly, it was his decision….(He) is pursuing other opportunities.”
Industry and congressional sources said they were surprised yesterday to hear tomorrow will be Helm’s final day as Northrop Grumman’s corporate vice president of government relations.
CEO and President Wes Bush, in an e-mail to employees mid-day yesterday, said Helm “announced his intention to retire from Northrop Grumman and pursue other opportunities.” Helm could not be reached yesterday, when he is said to have had jury duty.
“I would like to thank Bob for his many contributions to the company over his 21 years of service,” Bush wrote in the e-mail. “He joined Northrop Grumman in 1989, and has played a key role as head of our Washington office as the company experienced a period of rapid expansion and subsequent integration.”
Larry Lanzillotta, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of customer relations, will hold the top lobbying post in an acting capacity until Bush makes decisions about the Washington office’s leadership.
That Washington office will soon have more corporate company, because Northrop Grumman is in the process of relocating its headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington region. The company announced the move in January, saying it intends to set up a new 300-person corporate office in the capitol city, Maryland, or Virginia by 2011.
The relocation announcement coincided with Bush taking the helm at Northrop Grumman from Ron Sugar on Jan. 1 of this year (Defense Daily, Jan. 5).
Some sources attributed Helm’s retirement to the organizational changes, saying perhaps Bush would prefer to place someone of his choosing in the top lobbying spot.
Other sources speculated Helm simply may be ready to retire, considering his age and long career.
Northrop Grumman has grappled in recent years with rocky weapon-system efforts, including the Air Force tanker aircraft and Navy shipbuilding programs.
Northrop Grumman dropped out of the tanker contest last month, charging the request for proposals was weighted in favor of competitor Boeing [BA]. Northrop Grumman, which was partnered with European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) for the tanker contest, had less support in Congress than Chicago-based Boeing did in the highly political contract battle.
Helm joined Northrop Grumman in 1989 as corporate vice president of legislative affairs. He came from Honeywell [HON], where he was vice president of business development for the Space and Aviation Systems Business, according to his Northrop Grumman biography.
He was the Pentagon comptroller from 1984 to 1988, and also previously worked as a defense analyst for the Senate Budget Committee and director of defense programs and national security telecommunications policy for the National Security Council.
“Bob Helm understood retail politics and lobbying better than anybody else in the defense business,” said defense analyst and consultant Loren Thompson, chief operating officer at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
“But what always impressed me about him is that he really believed ideas could move the policy debate,” Thompson told Defense Daily. “He really believed if he had a good idea, a good concept, that simply by getting that idea disseminated in Washington, in the policy community, in the political process, he could change the way people thought about programs.”
Thompson said most of the people he deals with in industry “think that it is largely about politics and about engineering, but Bob really believed in the power of ideas in the political process.”