Defense, financial and segment leadership moves across the market

CAE

Jason Goodfriend will lead the aerospace company's defense and security group on an interim basis following the pending departure of now-former President Daniel Gelston after three years in the role.

Goodfriend first joined CAE in January 2023 as the group's chief operating officer, a newly-created position at the time in a series of reorganization and restructuring moves. His two-decade government market career also includes roles at BAE Systems' U.S. subsidiary and Akima.

This move follows CAE's March announcement that Srini Dixit joined the company as chief financial officer, following 25 years in finance-related roles at RTX and Lockheed Martin.

CAE is conducting a search for a permanent group president that includes internal and external candidates, while Gelston will remain at CAE in a supporting capacity through May.

IronArch Technology

John Piaggione has moved up to the chief financial officer role approximately one year after he first joined as vice president of finance.

Piaggione brings 10 years of experience to the position, having previously led financial operations at Client Solutions Architects and the company formerly known as Metis Solutions.

Metis was acquired by PAE in the second half of 2020.

IronArch is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that touts cloud engineering, data center consolidation and network modernization as its core service lines.

ManTech

Barbara Haines-Parmele has moved up to the role of executive vice president and general manager for the company's intelligence sector after previously working as a division VP.

The 18-year ManTech veteran will oversee its entire portfolio of programs across the intelligence community and be responsible for key strategic and operational initiatives.

She first joined ManTech as a program manager in 2006 and became a vice president in 2018.

Haines-Parmele's overall 25-year career also includes staff roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Delta Development Group.

Peraton

Tom Terjesen has returned to the company as chief information officer and will oversee its overall IT organization and strategy in support of overall growth, employee experience and other key objectives.

Terjesen will also hold a senior vice president title and take on the duty of senior IT adviser to Peraton's executive leadership team.

He rejoins Peraton after a stint as chief information officer at ASRC Federal. He became Peraton's vice president of IT following the combination with Perspecta.

His career also includes IT leadership roles at Vencore, BAE Systems' U.S. subsidiary and AIG.

QinetiQ US

Within the past few weeks, the defense technology company's U.S. subsidiary announced both a hire to its executive vice president ranks and a promotion to the senior VP group.

Charles Fielden joined QinetiQ US as executive VP and general manager for its intelligence, cyber and information management unit whose core service lines include capability assessments, testing and evaluation.

Fielden most recently spent approximately 15 years at Northrop Grumman, where he was responsible for growth in that company's cyber and intelligence portfolio.

In addition to that, Buck Elton moved up to the role of senior VP and GM for the defense modernization business unit and succeeds the now-retired Steve Iwicki. Elton also leads QinetiQ US' defense and technology solutions division that includes the subsidiary's space and data offerings.

Stoke Space

Paul Croci has joined the rocket and space vehicle startup as chief financial officer following a two-decade career involving a variety of significant financial transactions across the market.

His most recent leadership role was at the investment banking arm of Wells Fargo, where he worked as a managing director and led the aerospace and defense group. He also previously led Honeywell's business development and mergers-and-acquisitions team for the company's $12 billion aerospace division.

Croci's career prior to Honeywell included investment banking positions with Barclays, Peter J. Solomon Co. and Citigroup.

Stoke Space was founded in 2020 by a group of former Blue Origin and SpaceX employeesto work on integrated propulsion solutions for reusable rocket upper stages.

Tria Federal

Fabian Plath has joined the midsized IT and advisory services provider as chief growth officer to help chart the evolution of a vision and expansion strategy.

Plath will also lead the work to further build Tria's business development organization.

The two-decade market veteran most recently worked as senior vice president of growth at Tyto Athene, where he led the shaping and pursuit of bids for opportunities in areas such as network modernization and enterprise IT.

His career also includes business development leadership roles at General Dynamics IT, CSRA, NES Associates, Tri-Cor Industries and The Centech Group.

True Anomaly

Christina Cook has joined the space startup as its first-ever chief revenue officer to oversee its business development, sales and partnership function.

True Anomaly opened for business in 2022 and completed a $100 million Series B funding round in late 2023 to support the further development of its small satellites and other spacecraft, with a particular emphasis on sustainability.

Cook most recently spent 14 years at Palantir, where she helped lead its growth from three customers to a much wider client base across government and commercial markets.

Her appointment follows True Anomaly's announcement in January that it hired Frank Di Pentino as its first-ever chief strategy officer following a stint as director of advanced concepts, tactics and wargaming at Space Force.