Lockheed Martin Corp. said its incoming chief executive officer resigned after the company discovered a relationship with a subordinate and named one of its unit heads to the position starting next year.
Christopher E. Kubasik, Lockheed’s chief operating officer who was slated to become CEO on Jan. 1, left following a probe that confirmed a “lengthy, close and personal relationship” with someone who worked for him, current Chairman and CEO Robert Stevens said on a conference call yesterday.
The board named Marillyn A. Hewson, who had run Lockheed’s electronic systems business, as president and COO effective immediately. She will become CEO when Stevens, 61, steps down at yearend.
Kubasik’s departure from Lockheed, the world’s biggest defense contractor, follows similar exits from CEOs at companies including Best Buy Co. and was announced the same day CIA Director David Petraeus resigned from his position because of an extramarital affair. Lockheed competitor Boeing Co. ousted then-CEO Harry Stonecipher in 2005 for having an affair with an employee.
Lockheed picked Kubasik, 51, to be its next CEO in April after nearly a year of grooming him for the job, including the creation of a joint executive office with Stevens in October 2011.
The Bethesda,Md.-based company is facing declining US defense budgets, as well as criticism of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which at an estimated $395.7 billion is the Defense Department’s largest weapon system.
Shares of Lockheed rose less than 1 percent to $89.98 at the close, to give a gain of 11 percent this year.