Former Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn has been appointed the chairman and CEO of DRS Technologies, a United States-based operating division of Italy’s Finmeccanica, effective immediately.
Finmeccanica said that Lynn’s appointment is part of an effort to strengthen its defense and security business in the United States.
“Bill’s responsibilities will be to develop our business in North America, and shape and manage the group’s activities, to reposition them in light of a changing U.S. and international defense and security market,” Giuseppe Orsi, Finmeccanica’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
Lynn left the Department of Defense last year. Previously, he headed Raytheon’s [RTN] Washington, D.C., office from 2002 to 2009. Before that, he also was the Pentagon’s Comptroller and was the DoD Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation.
Lynn replaces long-time DRS Chief Mark Newman, who led the company’s growth through a combination of organic sales increases and acquisitions before Finmeccanica bought the company in 2008.