Veteran General Dynamics execs call it a career

Long-time General Dynamics Corp. executives Charles Hall and John Schwartz plan to retire in the next few months.

Hall, executive vice president and leader of its Combat Systems group since 2005, will retire May 1. Schwartz, who’s been company controller since 1998, will step down April 1.

David Heebner, in charge of the company’s Marine Systems group, will succeed Hall. In turn, Heebner will be replaced by Phebe Novakovic, senior vice president for planning and development.

John Jason Aiken, staff vice president of accounting since 2006, will succeed Schwartz as controller.

General Dynamics President and Chief Executive Jay Johnson called Hall “a visionary leader of the Combat Systems group for the past five years, and a dynamic player in the combat-vehicle business for nearly four decades.”

Schwartz has played a substantial role in the transformation of General Dynamics into a global market leader, Johnson said.

Heebner, a 33-year Army veteran, became executive vice president and group executive for Marine Systems in 2008, after serving as president of General Dynamics Land Systems from July 2005 until 2008.

General Dynamics, of Falls Church, Va., ranks No. 4 on Washington Technology’s 2009 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.