LONDON — L3 Technologies has appointed Stephen O’Bryan, a nearly 10-year veteran of Lockheed Martin, to lead business development companywide.

As senior vice president and chief global business development officer, O’Bryan will also coordinate the company’s relationships with the Department of Defense and across the branches of the military, Congress and government agencies, as well as commercial and international customers.

This is one of a string of additions to the L3 leadership team made since CEO Chris Kubasik kicked off his tenure in January, plucking individuals with lengthy tenures in the defense industry or with the military. Sean Stackley, former assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, leads strategic advanced capabilities and technologies; and Melanie Heitkamp, formerly of Lockheed and Leidos among others, leads human resources. Also interesting was the appointment of Rita Lane to the board of directors. Lane spent years in the technology sector, among other things serving as VP of operations at Apple and overseeing the launch of the iPad.

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“We have lots of great leaders coming to L3 and we are building the best team in aerospace and defense,” Kubasik told Defense News.

That, as well as Kubasik’s focus on integration of capabilities and services across the company and his ambitions to expand L3 to become the non-traditional sixth prime, is what drew O’Bryan, who left Lockheed Martin as VP of strategy and business development in March.

“[The priority is to] take advantage of the integration and collaboration to help make L3 a stronger company,” O’Bryan said in an interview with Defense News. "The company have been agile and lean. They have a reputation for that. But it’s time to bring all the capabilities out and integrate [them] into a bigger offering for the customer.”

That’s true for the U.S. military, but also true for the international community.

“Maybe we had not been able to reach [certain international customers] with what the L3 capabilities have been in the past,” he added. “There are some countries we haven’t done a lot of business in – that don’t know us as well as some other primes. As we continue to grow, and as we show this unique capability [to offer integrated solutions], we can listen and adapt solutions.”


About Jill Aitoro

Jill Aitoro is editor of Defense News. She is also executive editor of Sightline Media's Business-to-Government group, including Defense News, C4ISRNET, Federal Times and Fifth Domain. She brings over 15 years’ experience in editing and reporting on defense and federal programs, policy, procurement, and technology.

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