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Former Navy Secretary O'Keefe named EADS North America chairman
EADS executives have named former Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe the new chairman of its North American business unit.
O’Keefe, also EADS North America’s CEO, will replace Ralph Crosby, who recently retired, the company said in a statement. O’Keefe has been serving as both CEO and chairman since Jan. 1, and a spokesman said he will retain both jobs.
“EADS North America just concluded a remarkable year in 2011, having successfully expanded our product portfolio in the U.S., increased the company’s recognition with our federal and military customers, and extended our record of within budget and on time deliveries of the UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopter to our U.S. military customers,” O’Keefe said in a statement.
But EADS North America also lost the decade-long Air Force tanker competition to rival military aircraft-maker Boeing.
O’Keefe was Navy secretary under former President George H.W. Bush, and served as Pentagon comptroller before that. He also brings Capitol Hill experience to the job, having been staff director of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee.
The former Defense Department official also has been a vice president in GE’s technology infrastructure division, as well as the Washington operations chief of that firm’s aviation division.
From 2005 to 2008, he was chancellor of Louisiana State University.
The announcement may have given some needed cheer to O’Keefe — it came just over 12 hours after the LSU Tigers lost the Bowl Championship Series football title game to the Crimson Tide of Alabama.
—This article was updated at 1:51 p.m.
