Northrop Grumman Appoints Sir Nigel Essenhigh as Chief Executive for Defence and Civil IT, and C4ISTAR Business in Europe

Northrop Grumman Appoints Sir Nigel Essenhigh as Chief Executive for Defence and Civil IT, and C4ISTAR Business in Europe
January 18, 2010

LONDON, Jan. 18 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) has announced the appointment of Sir Nigel Essenhigh as chief executive of its Information Systems Europe business. In this new position, he will focus on the strategic direction of Northrop Grumman's activities in the defence and civil IT, C4ISTAR and counter-IED markets in the UK, mainland Europe and its export markets. Sir Nigel will continue in his role as non-executive chairman for Northrop Grumman in the UK.

As chief executive he will be responsible for helping the company's Information Systems sector in Europe achieve its business objectives including providing strategic guidance to help support current programmes, encourage growth and assist with the development of new business opportunities.

"The UK is one of our most important markets and a platform for growth into export markets around the world. We work closely with our customers across a range of important areas including unmanned ground vehicles, command and control systems, air traffic management in the UK and Norway, civil IT systems and cyber security. This appointment will help to reinforce our UK presence, enable us to interact productively with our customer base and achieve greater integration of our European business entities", said Linda Mills, president of Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector. "We are delighted that Sir Nigel will be joining our Information Systems Europe organization as chief executive, and we look forward to the contributions he will make towards the continued success and growth of our business."

Sir Nigel served for 40-years in the Royal Navy following a varied career of which a large part was spent at sea worldwide in surface ships ranging from patrol boat to aircraft carrier. In his final naval appointments he served first as Commander-in-Chief Fleet where he also held the dual NATO appointments as Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic Area and Commander Allied Naval Forces North West Europe. From there he assumed the role of professional head of the Royal Navy when he took over as First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff in 2001.

He became a consultant to Northrop Grumman in the UK in 2003 and performed several advisory roles until, in January 2009, he was appointed to the newly created position of non-executive Chairman of Northrop Grumman UK.

Northrop Grumman has a well established presence in the UK with a heritage that spans 100 years. It provides a variety of advanced technology solutions in support of programmes in the defence and security and resilience markets. The company operates from primary locations in London, Fareham, Chester, Coventry, New Malden, Peterborough, RAF Waddington and Solihull and provides avionics, communications, electronic warfare systems, marine navigation and naval systems, unmanned ground vehicles, C4I solutions and mission planning, aircraft whole life support, IT systems and software development.

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