Leidos [LDOS] on Monday said long-time Chairman and CEO Roger Krone will retire this spring and be succeeded as CEO by Thomas Bell, who is currently president of Defense for Britain’s Rolls-Royce plc and chairman and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America, Inc.
Bell, 62, will become CEO of Leidos on May 3. Bell was appointed president-Defense at Rolls-Royce in February 2018 and before that was senior vice president of global sales and marketing at
Boeing’s [BA] Defense, Space & Security (BDS) segment, reporting to the CEO. Rolls-Royce Defense had nearly $4.5 billion in sales in 2022.
Bell began his career at Lockheed Martin [LMT] working in Manned Space Flight. He first joined Boeing in 1988 and worked in a variety of roles, including contracts and pricing, business development for military aircraft, vice president of business development for global services and support, vice president of strategy and business capture for BDS, and assignments in Finland and the United Kingdom where he was president of operations for Boeing Aerospace UK, Ltd.
Bell first joined Roll-Royce in mid-2012 when he was named president, customer business, North America. He later become president Rolls-Royce Defense Aerospace, before leaving in 2015 to rejoin Boeing.
“Tom’s exceptional track record in harnessing the power of technology to drive growth and innovation, with his strong leadership skills and focus on understanding the needs of the customer, has resulted in a consistent record of success and value creation in both products and services,” Bob Shapard, lead director of Leidos’ board, said in a statement. “His deep understanding of many of our customers will facilitate a smooth transition.”
During his first period at Boeing, Bell worked with Krone, who left the aerospace and defense giant in July 2014 to lead Leidos. At Boeing, Krone was head of the $8.5 billion Network & Space Systems business, one of three segments at BDS. He oversaw systems and services ranging from electronic and information solutions, strategic and missile defense systems, space and intelligence systems, and space exploration.
Krone, 66, succeeded John Jumper, the former Air Force chief of staff, at Leidos. At the time, Leidos had about $5.8 billion in annual sales. Now, through acquisitions and organic growth overseen by Krone, Leidos is a $14.4 billion company.
Louis DiPalma, an analyst with the financial services firm William Blair, said in a client note that Krone “built Leidos into the largest provider of enterprise IT/networking services for the U.S. Department of Defense and federal civilian agencies.” The company’s acquisition of Dynetics in January 2020 also gave it a role as a key supplier in space, hypersonic missile and missile defense programs, he said.
Jefferies aerospace and defense analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu, also in a client report, highlighted that both Bell and Krone came from the manufacturing sector before joining Leidos. She also said Bell will have to show he can sustain Leidos’ ability to win multi-billion-dollar contracts such as the Navy’s Next Generation Enterprise Network and the Defense Information Security Agency’s Defense Enclave Services programs it has under Krone.
Krone, 66, will give up his chairman role in late April at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders, at which time the board is expected to appoint Shapard as a non-executive chairman and nominate Bell to be a member of the board.
Shapard was on the board of Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] beginning in 2013 and after splitting into two companies, SAIC and Leidos, he remained on the Leidos board and is their lead director.