BAE details U.S. leadership transition

BAE Systems Inc. CEO Jerry DeMuro will hand that role over to current President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Arseneault on April 1 of next year in a succession plan announced Tuesday.

DeMuro will move into a newly created role as executive vice president of strategic initiatives for the rest of 2020 and remain on the board of directors for the British defense company’s U.S. subsidiary.

Arseneault has also been appointed to the board of directors for the BAE Systems PLC parent company, according to a trading update for U.K. investors posted Tuesday.

That same trading update said DeMuro will have responsibility for a governance review of global shipbuilding and delivery of “a number of strategic assignments across our U.S. and other businesses.”

DeMuro joined BAE’s U.S. arm as chief executive in 2014 to succeed Linda Hudson. Prior to BAE, DeMuro was an executive at General Dynamics and led the defense company’s IT businesses in his last role there.

Arseneault has held his current titles since May of this year. He is a member of both the board of directors of Arlington, Virginia-based BAE Systems Inc. and the executive committee for the parent company.

The 22-year BAE veteran has also led the U.S. electronic systems and product sectors during his career at the company.

BAE’s largest market is the U.S., where the company recorded $10.8 billion in revenue last year to represent 42 percent of overall corporate sales and has around 33,000 employees.

The BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary came in at No. 22 for this year's edition of the WT Top 100 rankings. A core piece of its services strategy includes embracing partnerships with commercial technology companies and focusing on extracting value out of collected data.