Lockheed Hunts for CFO After Ken Possenriede’s Sudden Exit

Pentagon’s most significant defense contractor Lockheed Martin claimed on Tuesday main money officer Ken Possenriede is retiring instantly “due to own reasons” and named a business veteran as an interim replacement.

Ken Possenriede

What Happened: The maker of F-35 fighter jets named John Mollard, the latest vice president and treasurer, to fill in quickly as a replacement for Ken Possenriede, an additional business veteran who was leading the CFO purpose at Lockheed considering the fact that February 2019.

Possenriede, 60, has spent in excess of a few a long time with Lockheed in different roles together with as vice president and treasurer. His unexpected exit arrives two times ahead of the company’s scheduled trader working day on Thursday and following a uncommon miss on quarterly earnings previous week.

Possenriede’s unexpected exit was not linked to any “financial or accounting difficulty or any disagreement with the business or any matter relating to the company’s functions, policies, or techniques,” Lockheed claimed in a Securities and Trade Fee filing on Tuesday.

Why It Issues: The hunt for a new CFO arrives following a year Lockheed navigated through the world-wide pandemic that strike the defense sector hard with shutdowns, shortages, and months of delays.

A draft of the 2022 defense spending plan indicates the U.S. defense sector could get a expending improve of $25 billion below President Joe Biden as the Pentagon seems to retire older weapons packages in favor of more recent technological know-how.

Rate Action: Lockheed shares shut .31% greater at $369.forty five on Tuesday and were down .8% in prolonged hrs.