Mercury promotes new COO, consolidates structure

Mercury Systems has promoted one of its executives to the newly-created role of chief operating officer as the aerospace and defense subsystem supplier continues on a realignment initiative.

Roger Wells first joined Mercury in the fall of 2021 as president of its microelectronics division and will start as COO on Monday. Mercury is also consolidating that division and its mission systems unit into a single structure incorporating multiple business units and support functions, the company said Wednesday.

The realignment will also result in the reduction of about 100 jobs and the departure of two executives after a short transition period: Chief Growth Officer Christine Harbison and Allen Couture, executive vice president of execution excellence.

This reorganization and COO promotion is the newest in a series of changes being led by chief executive Bill Ballhaus, who became Mercury's full-time CEO in August and subsequently detailed short-term priorities for the company's reset and transition year to investors.

He first joined Mercury as acting CEO in June, an appointment that followed the Mercury board of directors' decision to end a formal sale process. Ballhaus was previously CEO of the government services companies formerly known as DynCorp International and SRA International.

Prior to Mercury, Wells spent 13 years at the FLIR Systems business that is now part of Teledyne Technologies and most recently led its unmanned systems unit.

Mercury expects to record between $10 million and $12 million in restructuring charges with the realignment.