Huntington Ingalls, Parsons detail promotions in leadership ranks

Over the past two work days, a pair of the government market’s publicly-traded companies unveiled a series of promotions in their senior leadership ranks either in operational roles or on the board of directors.

Huntington Ingalls Industries has promoted its chief financial officer to a newly-created position and elevated a second executive to be the corporation’s next CFO.

The company said Friday that CFO Chris Kastner will become COO on Feb. 12, 2021, and be succeeded in that financial leadership role by Thomas Stiehle, who is CFO of the company’s Ingalls Shipbuilding segment.

As COO, Kastner will work with the presidents of HII’s three segments to drive execution on the backlog. Kastner became CFO in March 2016 and his tenure has included the late 2016 standup of HII’s government services segment known as Technical Solutions, which has integrated three more acquisitions since.

Stiehle joined HII in 2011 upon its spinoff from former parent Northrop Grumman, where he had worked for 24 years.

Both Kastner and Stiehle will report to CEO Mike Petters.

Move number two comes from Parsons Corp.’s board of directors, which has elected a new member in President and Chief Operating Officer Carey Smith.

Smith becomes the 11th director on Parsons’ board and is not currently expected to serve on any of its committees, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.

A three-decade market veteran, Smith joined Parsons in 2016 as president of its federal solutions business and was promoted two years later to chief operating officer for the corporation.

She then helped lead Parsons through its initial public offering in 2019.