After 37 years, Coffman to retire

Vance Coffman, chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., plans to retire as CEO Aug. 6, the company announced earlier this month.Coffman has been with the company for 37 years, the last seven as CEO. The company board named Robert Stevens, president and chief operating officer, as Coffman's successor. Coffman, 59, plans to remain as chairman of the board until April 2005, the company said. "We are pleased that Vance Coffman will serve as our CEO through July, and then continue as our chairman until the 2005 annual meeting," Presiding Director James Ukropina said. "This will ensure an orderly transition of leadership." When Coffman took the reins of the company in 1997, Lockheed Martin was struggling to integrate more than 20 acquisitions that had created the company. He is credited by many with cleaning up the company's balance sheet through restructuring and divestitures, and in recent years the company has embarked on more acquisitions. Many of those deals have been in the information technology arena, including OAO Corp. and the federal business of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. A deal for Titan Corp. is pending. In 2003, the company had $31.8 billion in revenue and was ranked No. 1 on Top 100 list of federal IT contractors.