Northrop Grumman will be moving to a new facility in Falls Church, Va. later this year and the company has already begun prepping. So far the company has proudly placed its insignia on the new 14-story building and hired key executives.
Northrop Grumman expects to hire about 150 new people for the new location, according to Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote. Less than 50 percent of Northrop Grumman’s Los Angeles-based corporate staff is planning to move to the new facility, and the company said it will cut its current corporate staff from 360 to 300 people when it relocates.
North Grumman has been busy hiring key executives for the site including Sid Ashworth, former vice president of GE Aviation’s Washington operations and a longtime professional staffer with the Senate Appropriations Committee. It also hired Sheila C. Cheston from BAE Systems to serve as general counsel. Cheston’s experience includes chairing Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering’s international aviation, defense and aerospace group and serving as general counsel of the Air Force.
“When a company moves 3,000 miles, it doesn’t just move furniture. It has to find new executive talent . . . and that’s tough,” said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant at the Lexington Institute, in the Washington Post. “Northrop seems to have made some very savvy choices in its initial hires.”
The move is slated to begin in late summer, around August, and conclude by early fall, Belote said. The move will occur in phases and will include the transfer of other Northrop Grumman business sectors to the new building.
