Northrop names Warden COO, other senior appointments for 2018

Northrop Grumman has appointed a new chief operating officer and made a series of other promotions as a pair of top executives will retire at the end of this year.

The defense contractor said Monday that current mission systems segment lead Kathy Warden will move up to president and COO of the company on Jan. 1, 2018 and succeed the retiring Gloria Flach. Warden will oversee all three company segments and lead the integration of Orbital ATK into Northrop after the companies complete their combination.

Flach holds the distinction of being the first female to hold the COO title in Northrop's history. Warden has led the $10.9 billion mission systems segment since its 2016 formation when Northrop restructured from four segments to three. That realignment included Flach's appointment as COO.

Also on Jan. 1, Mark Caylor will succeed Warden as president of the mission systems segment that contains much of Northrop's cybersecurity portfolio. Caylor will also become a corporate vice president in this promotion from his current role as leader of Northrop's enterprise shared services organization and functions for corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions.

Shawn Purvis, vice president and chief information officer, will move into the role of president for enterprise services and also become a corporate VP in conjunction. Purvis currently oversees Northrop's internal IT strategy.

Lesley Kalan, head of Northrop's corporate legislative affairs organization, will succeed the retiring Sid Ashworth as corporate VP for government relations.

Warden, Caylor, Purvis, Kalan and all sector presidents will be members of Northrop's corporate policy council.