A discussion with
Ellen Lord
President and CEO
Textron Systems

Today’s defense industry is dominated by firms that sell a wide range of products and services with a nearly pure-play focus on military customers. It wasn’t always this way, but one distinctive thread in the post-cold-war restructuring of defense was the exit of conglomerates from the market. Not so Textron, which remains today a multi-industrial company participating in a wide range of markets, including defense. Besides its well-known brand of helicopters (Bell) and general aviation aircraft (Cessna), the company’s Textron Systems business sells unmanned aircraft, armored vehicles, marine landing craft, intelligence and surveillance systems, and precision weapons. Against the backdrop of expectation about a new wave of restructuring, the place of multi-industrial, diversified companies on the defense-industrial landscape is once again a topic of special importance to corporate strategists and public policy-makers, not to mention investors.

To inform a discussion of that topic on January 15th from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Ellen Lord, President and CEO of Textron Systems, will share her perspective on the strengths her company brings to the market, challenges facing the modern conglomerate, and how public policy shapes the incentives to which these companies respond.

Participate in the conversation using #ACCOI and follow @AtlanticCouncil

The Captains of Industry Series is a platform for senior defense industry executives to address the public interests their companies serve and the public policies that shape their markets. By engaging the perspective of business leaders about issues at the interface of defense ministries and industries, the series will cultivate a constituency for practical solutions to these problems.