HII [HII] on Monday said it has hired Eric Chewning to fill a new strategy position within the corporate leadership designed to help the company navigate its way forward as a shipbuilder and broader technologies solutions provider as the Defense Department continues to move toward a more fully integrated and networked battlespace.
Chewning joined HII on Jan. 30 from McKinsey & Company where he was co-lead of the management consulting firm’s aerospace and defense practice.
Before joining McKinsey & Co., he was chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan during the Trump administration. Early in the administration, he was the deputy secretary of defense for industrial policy.
Chewning is HII’s executive vice president of strategy and development, and reports directly to Chris Kastner, the company’s president and CEO.
“We have urgent work in front of us in support of the U.S. Navy, and there is no greater priority than building the great ships our Navy needs,” Kastner said in an internal email announcing Chewning’s hiring. “At the same time, we are growing in impact as we deliver the all domain solutions that connect and strengthen the force of the future. With 20 years of experience in national security markets, Eric will guide HII’s corporate strategy, including identifying new opportunities for growth, cross-division collaboration, and potential investment.”
HII’s legacy is in naval shipbuilding, but in 2016 it consolidated some of its services businesses with the acquisition of Camber Corp. to form the Technical Solutions segment, which through a series of acquisitions has grown into a $1.5 billion business providing services and technologies in the areas of unmanned systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, and live, virtual and constructive training. HII in 2022 renamed the segment to Mission Technologies.
Chewning is an Army veteran. He was with McKinsey & Co. for nearly four years before working at DoD and also spent more than five years with the consulting firm Booz & Company before it was acquired by
PricewaterhouseCoopers.