Lockheed exec named to 3M board
By
Nick Wakeman
Sondra Barbour, leader of Lockheed Martin IS&GS, has been named a director of 3M, but the appointment might be about more than kudos for Barbour. She'll likely be gaining important lessons on critical markets and business operations that she can bring back to Lockheed Martin.
3M, the company that makes Scotch tape as well as energy and health care products, has named Lockheed Martin’s Sondra Barbour to its board of directors.
Barbour, as most of you know, is the executive vice president of Lockheed’s Information Systems & Global Solutions business. She’s also an officer of the company.
This is her first appointment as a director with an outside company, and it’s a doozy. 3M is one of 30 companies on the Dow Jones Index and has annual sales of $31 billion.
In addition to her work at IS&GS, Barbour is a director at Lockheed Martin Australia, a Lockheed subsidiary.
She also has corporate experience having served as senior vice president of Enterprise Business Services and was Lockheed’s chief information officer, leading all internal IT operations, including efforts to battle cyber threats.
In fact, her IT experience seems to have been a critical factor in 3M’s choice. “She’s a talented and proven business leader with valuable insight and tremendous experience with leading large-scale information systems operations, said Inge Thulin, 3M chairman, president and CEO, in a statement.
This is nice recognition for Barbour and says something about her stature at Lockheed and in the broader business world. Fortune magazine last year named her one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business.
Barbour’s position on 3M’s board should benefit Lockheed as she’ll gain new perspectives on some market segments that are important to the company, including health care, electronics and energy.
3M also is a very international company with 64 percent of company’s total revenue coming in non-U.S. markets. International markets are seen as a growth engine for Lockheed going forward, so I can also imagine Barbour will gain some very valuable insights on what it means to be a more global company.
3M will get Barbour’s IT and cyber expertise, something every company needs in today’s world of constant intrusions and hacker attacks. I’m sure she’ll be asking some tough questions in those board meetings.