Leadership Changes at Huntington Ingalls Industries

U.S. shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced today a number of changes across its leadership team.

HII’s Board of Directors has elected Christopher D. Kastner to succeed Barbara A. Niland as the company’s chief financial officer and corporate vice president, business management, effective with Niland’s retirement on March 1, 2016. Furthermore Philip Luna, corporate vice president and president, UniversalPegasus International (UPI), a subsidiary of HII, has been promoted to the HII senior executive team, effective immediately. The company also announced that, effective March 1, 2016, Michael S. Smith, currently serving as corporate vice president, corporate development and nuclear and environment sciences, will also join the senior executive team in the role of corporate vice president, strategy and development. 

All three of the new appointments will report to HII President and CEO Mike Petters in their new roles.

“Barb has been a member of my team since she joined Northrop Grumman Newport News in 2004,” said HII President and CEO Mike Petters, “and was instrumental in HII becoming a publicly traded company in 2011. On a daily basis, and for many years, I’ve relied upon her financial acumen and sound judgment, and she always gives 110 percent to every project or task. She demonstrates excellent leadership and a great commitment to the men and women who make up the HII enterprise, and we will miss her.”

Kastner, who currently serves as corporate vice president and general manager, corporate development, will be responsible for directing the business strategy and processes in support of business growth and profitability goals in this position. He will also have responsibility for corporate business management functions, including investor relations, treasury, internal audit, contracts, accounting, financial reporting, planning and analysis, rates and budgets, and mergers and acquisition. Additionally, he will provide oversight for segment business management, contracts and estimating and pricing.

Kastner has more than 25 years of experience in the financial and business development arenas. Prior to being named to his current position in August 2012, he served as vice president and CFO for HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division. He also served as vice president, business management, and CFO for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding-Gulf Coast and as vice president, contracts and risk management, for Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. He began his career at Northrop Grumman working on the B-2 program and had various business management positions, including working in the treasury organization negotiating strategic transactions. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He also completed an executive management course in mergers and acquisitions at Stanford University. He is on the board of directors for WHRO, the only public broadcasting station in the United States owned by a collaboration of 19 public school districts, and serves on the board of trustees for Eastern Virginia Medical School.

With more than 30 years of engineering and construction management experience, Luna will continue to oversee the management of UPI, a leading provider of engineering, project management and field services to the global onshore and offshore energy markets.

Luna holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He began his career as a project engineer at Exxon and has spent equivalent time working in the owner/operator and then the services side of the oil and gas industries. He joined UPI in 2012 from Jacobs Engineering, where he held various positions, including vice president of business development, vice president of projects, and vice president of operations in Baton Rouge, La. Prior serving at Jacobs Engineering, Luna was vice president and general manager of CDI Engineering.

Luna is a member and past chair of the board of directors for St. Thomas High School and a former member of the board of the Rice University Global E&C Forum.

In his new role, effective March 1, 2016, Smith will be responsible for strategy and development activities at HII, including the development and integration of strategic planning efforts as well as the analysis and entrance into markets where HII can leverage its engineering and construction competencies.

Smith joined HII in 2014 in the role of corporate vice president, business growth. He came from BAE Systems, where he worked for 10 years—most recently as sector vice president, business development, strategy and planning, for the Support Solutions sector. Prior to BAE, he worked at Marsh USA, Inc. as a leader for the company’s nuclear risk practice and then as vice president for insurance services.

Smith earned two degrees at Stanford University: a bachelor’s in industrial engineering in 1995 and a master’s in engineering management in 1996. Smith also served five years as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy, including tours on three HII-built ships: the cruiser USS Valley Forge (CG 50) and the aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74).