Lockheed Martin Welcomes New Members to its Executive Leadership Team
Lockheed Martin has announced the appointment of new members to its Executive Leadership Team.
The Board of Directors at Lockheed Martin has named Kevin O’Connor as the corporation’s new senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary. Effective Jan, 13, O’Connor will succeed Maryanne Lavan, who is retiring. O’Connor most recently served as senior vice president & chief legal officer for Carrier.
Additionally, experienced Lockheed Martin technical and business leader Maria Demaree will be the new senior vice president of Enterprise Business and Digital Transformation and chief information officer. Dave Young will succeed Demaree as the vice president and general manager of the National Security Space (NSS) line of business, effective Jan. 1. Young most recently served as the deputy vice president and general manager of NSS.
John Clark, vice president and general manager of Skunk Works®, has been named senior vice president for Technology and Strategic Innovation. OJ Sanchez, currently vice president of the Integrated Fighter Group, will assume leadership of Skunk Works on Jan. 1. Details about Sanchez’s replacement will be shared at a later date. Lockheed Martin Engineering and Technology veteran Dr. Tony DeSimone will become senior vice president of Enterprise Engineering. Their appointments are effective Jan. 1.
Demaree, who currently serves as vice president and general manager, National Security Space, will succeed Yvonne Hodge, who is retiring. Demaree has more than 34 years of experience at Lockheed Martin in critical positions across all major business areas. She has overseen multi-billion-dollar portfolios with a primary focus on delivering high-performance systems and innovative concepts for mission solutions. Demaree will report to Chief Operating Officer Frank St. John.
Clark and DeSimone’s new roles succeed Rod Makoske, chief engineer and senior vice president of Engineering and Technology, who is planning to retire. Clark, who will also have LM Ventures in his new portfolio, brings more than 26 years of experience at Lockheed Martin to his new role. Most recently he served as vice president and general manager of Skunk Works®. He has held roles throughout his career spanning materials and process engineering, technology roadmaps, ISR and unmanned systems. Clark will report to Chairman, President and CEO Jim Taiclet.
DeSimone builds on his nearly 28 years of experience at Lockheed Martin, most recently as vice president of Enterprise Engineering, where he led Engineering and Technology execution across Lockheed Martin. He previously served as vice president of Engineering and Technology for the company’s Rotary and Mission Systems business area. DeSimone will report to St. John.
Hodge, Lavan and Makoske will serve as strategic advisors in the interim to help ensure a smooth transition.
About Kevin O’Connor
Prior to Lockheed Martin, O’Connor was senior vice president & chief legal officer for Carrier. In this role, O’Connor oversaw the company’s legal and compliance matters worldwide. He also was responsible for government and regulatory affairs, where he developed and executed advocacy strategies to support global business growth.
Prior to joining Carrier, he served as chief legal officer for Point72. Before that, O’Connor served as the vice president of Global Ethics & Compliance, UTC, and was a partner at the law firm Bracewell LLP.
O’Connor is a proven leader with more than 25 years’ experience, bringing to the role a strong combination of experience in government and the private sector, including at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as U.S. attorney for Connecticut and as associate attorney general of the United States, the third-ranking official at the Department of Justice.
O’Connor earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Connecticut and on the Board of Directors for Encompass Health.
About Maria Demaree
Maria Demaree has been a part of Lockheed Martin for 30+ years and is currently the vice president and general manager of the National Security Space line of business at Lockheed Martin Space where she leads a technical workforce of 8,000+ employees and oversees the execution of a robust $6.6B customer portfolio comprised of 250+ critical defense and intelligence community programs.
Across the national security space enterprise, Maria is a sought after thought leader on Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), autonomous space systems, Open Systems Approach (OSA), Software-defined satellite architectures (SmartSat™), and the military application of leading-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to enable the rapid collection, processing and delivery of persistent value data streams across global neural networks. In addition to her technical acumen, Maria also a proven thought leadership on workforce development initiatives aimed at attracting, retaining, and elevating cleared talent, while enhancing the classified employee workplace experience (colloquially referred to as SCIF Life). Additionally, Maria is an executive champion of digital and business transformation strategy as well as workforce diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives.
Outside of her primary leadership roles, Maria serves on the Board of Directors for Zeta Associates (Chairman), the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), the National Space Security Association (NSSA), as well as the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.
Maria’s professional accolades include: Society of Women Engineers — Suzanne Jenniches Upward Mobility APEX Award recipient (2024); Pennsylvania State University, Eberly College of Science — Outstanding Science Alumni Award honoree (2024); Executive Mosaic’s — Wash 100 Award winner (2023, 2024); DefenseScoop 50 Award honoree (2024); FedScoop’s Top Women in Tech (2018). Additionally, Maria was recognized by Via Satellite Magazine (2023) as one of the leading women driving the aerospace industry forward and is a March of Dimes Heroine in Technology Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
Maria earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
About John Clark
John Clark is vice president and general manager of Skunk Works®. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading all advanced development activities and personnel across Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics business area, engaging with a diverse customer community and setting strategic priorities for the growth engine of the business. He also serves as a member of the Aeronautics Executive Leadership Team.
In previous roles he served as vice president, Engineering & Technology, where he ensured the technical integrity of Aeronautics' products and processes, supported technical concept development, and led the development and resourcing of more than 8,000 engineers. He also served as vice president of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance & Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ISR&UAS) for Skunk Works.
He holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a master's degree in business administration from Texas Christian University.
About Tony DeSimone
Dr. Anthony (Tony) DeSimone is vice president of Enterprise Engineering at Lockheed Martin, responsible for engineering execution across the 44,000 engineers within the company’s business areas and Enterprise Operations. In this role, he is focused on implementing a model-based enterprise with new and common processes to advance Engineering & Technology (E&T) excellence in support of 21st Century Security® strategic imperatives.
Previously, DeSimone served as the vice president of E&T at Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems. As the principal technical leader for the RMS business area and its more than 14,000 engineers and scientists, Tony focused his team on creating an all-digital development environment, advancing disruptive technologies, driving superior program performance, and delivering innovative solutions that exceed customer and company expectations.
DeSimone has been recognized for his leadership and technical excellence efforts through numerous awards from Lockheed Martin and government agencies including Operation Burnt Frost and the LRDR program. DeSimone is also one of the select industry recipients of the MDA’s prestigious Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Pathfinder Award (2016).
He is an industry advisor to Drexel University for the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as a member of the Drexel President’s Leadership Council. He received his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees focused on theoretical physics from Drexel University, and his master’s degree in business administration from the College of William & Mary.