Board, executive and private equity appointments mark busy week in people movement

Two companies added notable names to their boards of directors, while a space technology outfit hired an industry veteran to its leadership team and a private equity firm added a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general to its brain trust.

Here is a roundup of those appointments in the government market from within the past week.

CAE USA

Former Rep. Mac Thornberry, Brian Morra and CAE Chief Financial Officer Sonya Branco are new members of the board of directors at the U.S. subsidiary of Montreal-headquartered CAE.

Thornberry retired from Congress in December 2020 after 26 years on Capitol Hill with much of his tenure including service on the House Armed Services Committee and four years as HASC chairman.

Morra spent 12 years at Northrop and is a four-decade defense industry veteran, while Branco has led CAE’s finance activities for the past five years.

Forcepoint

The spinoff of Raytheon now backed by private equity welcomed back one of its former CEOs to a seat on the board of directors alongside two other new members.

John McCormack led Forcepoint from 2013 until 2016 in a tenure that included the commercial cyber company’s rebranding to its current identity after Raytheon became majority owner of the venture.

Matt Dircks is CEO of BeyondTrust and his 25-year career also includes stops at BMC Software, Quest Software, NetIQ and Citrix Systems.

John Zangardi is a former chief information officer for the Defense and Homeland Security departments. He currently is president of Redhorse Corp. and was formerly a senior vice president at Leidos.

Maxar Technologies

Former Boeing executive Chris Johnson will join the Earth imagery and satellite producer on May 24 as senior vice president of space programs delivery.

Johnson will oversee design, manufacturing, integration, test and delivery for the company’s portfolio of space platforms and space-based robotics systems. He will lead a team of 1,900 employees at the company’s facilities in Palo Alto, San Jose and Pasadena, California.

Johnson most recently was president of Boeing’s commercial satellite business.

Pine Island Capital Partners

The latest partner to join the private investment firm is Vincent Stewart, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Stewart was the first-ever Marine to lead DIA and is also a former deputy director of U.S. Cyber Command, where he served until his retirement in 2019.

Pine Island is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and its leadership team is full of veterans from government and industry.