ULA Changes Leadership at Top
CENTENNIAL, Colo., Aug. 12, 2014 (ULA PR) – United Launch Alliance (ULA) today named veteran aerospace industry executive Tory Bruno as its next president and chief executive officer, succeeding Michael Gass, who has served as president and CEO since ULA’s founding in 2006. Bruno’s appointment is effective immediately; he and Gass will work collaboratively to ensure a smooth leadership transition and continued commitment to mission success.
Bruno joins ULA from Lockheed Martin, where he was most recently vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems. In that position he oversaw 4,500 employees and managed a diverse portfolio for U.S. and international customers. Over the course of his 30-year career, Bruno has held executive leadership positions in a number of space and missile programs, including the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Ballistic Missile program and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Missile.
“Mike’s track record speaks for itself: 86 successful launches in a row, including many of our nation’s most complex and critical space missions,” said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and a ULA board member. “Tory is an ideal leader to take the reins at ULA. He’ll bring the same unwavering commitment to mission success that has been ULA’s hallmark, and will apply his proven track record of driving customer focus, innovation and affordability to shape ULA’s future.”
“We’re grateful for Mike’s leadership and contribution to ULA’s customers and employees, as well as the space industry as a whole,” said Craig Cooning, president of Boeing Network and Space Systems and a ULA board member. “Tory understands the launch business as well as anyone and is well-qualified to ensure ULA keeps pace with changing customer needs and launch industry dynamics.”
Gass retires after eight years as ULA’s president and CEO, during which he oversaw the establishment of the new joint venture and successfully led the integration of a portfolio of launch vehicles that is unmatched in reliability and performance. He previously led Atlas rocket programs at Lockheed Martin and, earlier in his career, held a variety of management positions at General Dynamics’ Space Systems division.
With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation’s most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered 86 satellites to orbit that provide critical capabilities for troops in the field, aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, enable personal device-based GPS navigation and unlock the mysteries of our solar system. ULA – Bringing rocket science down to Earth.
For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch and twitter.com/ulalaunch.
6 responses to “ULA Changes Leadership at Top”
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Not good for ULA. Bruno really only knows about doing cost+ contracts via a monopoly. Basically, he has no real experience on competition, and will very likely not be able to move ULA beyond its current monopoly thinking, into a new competitive approach.
And sadly, I doubt that he will get funding from Boeing or L-Mart to develop a replacement for Atlas (and the few parts of Delta from Russia).
Either Gass is getting out on his own initiative ahead of the implosion he sees coming, or he’s being diplomatically shown the door by directors who have decided he’s not the guy who can pull ULA’s chestnuts out of the fire. The fact that the new guy seems to have an entirely defense-related background doesn’t augur especially well for future competitive nimbleness from ULA, but who knows, maybe the pig will learn to sing.
You could tell from his statements over the last months that Gass had been feeling the heat.
I’d never even heard the guy’s name until he started showing up in the news for basically the wrong kind of reasons (defending the giant block buy [of which he would later hire the procurement officer, sheesh!], running down the competition, senate hearings, overly defensive touting of ULA’s record and patriotism, etc.).
From the ULA bio on Bruno
“He is the author of two books that explore the organization of the medieval Knights Templar from the perspective of modern business management: “Templar Organization: The Management of Warrior Monasticism” and “Templar Incorporated.” He is a recipient of the Order of Merit of the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem.”
I wonder if he read Umberto Eco’s book Foucault’s Pendulum. Has some hilarious parts about people who write about the Templars.
Meh I can understand why a business man would write about them. People often ignore everything other than they were knights. The reality is they became in effect a nation and near empire. They created modern banking.
The Russians are probably going to hold up the engines and Gass wanted to get out before then .. pass on the headache.