CAES, a leader in advanced mission-critical electronics for aerospace and defense, announces new leadership appointments in line with its continued focus on operational excellence, customer performance, future growth, and sustainability. Joining the CAES corporate team are Steffanie Easter, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, and Rob Smith, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Integrated Defense Systems Division. Rob replaces Paul Shew, who has taken on the corporate Operations Excellence position.

Easter will be responsible for the overall sustainability efforts of the company to drive best practices across key elements of environmental, social, and governance standards, and support related strategic engagements with industry peers and customers. She previously served as the Vice President, Deputy Army Business Unit and Vice President, Strategy and Planning at SAIC, where she led the strategic growth and development within the defense and civilian sector. Prior to that, Steffanie worked in both the U.S. Navy as the Director, Navy Staff in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the U.S. Army as the Acting Assistant Secretary/Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. She started her career in engineering at NAVAIR. Steffanie holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering Management from Catholic University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

“Steffanie brings extensive depth and breadth of experiences across our DoD industry and customers, and will be a great addition to our CAES leadership team,” said Mike Kahn, President and CEO, CAES. “Steffanie’s background and abilities will help CAES establish an industry leading ESG program, and better support our customers, employees, and stakeholders.”

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Rob Smith will lead CAES’ Integrated Defense Systems Division, that supports CAES customers with the most advanced EW and Radar systems and components as well as industry-leading capabilities in engineering, manufacturing and test. Rob was most recently President, Government Operations at BWX Technologies where he drove digital transformation efforts, program excellence, key acquisitions and strong customer engagements. Prior to BWXT, Rob served in several senior leadership positions in Lockheed Martin, and started his career in the intelligence field with the US Government. Rob holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, a Master of Business Administration degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

“Rob has decades of experience in the aerospace and defense industry with a breadth of diverse, growth-oriented roles that align well with our technologies, key programs and business plan for the future. I’m excited to welcome Rob to the CAES team,” said Kahn.

Source: CAES