Thomas A. Kennedy, the chairman of Raytheon Technologies Corp. and a key player in the formation of the company one year ago, will retire June 1, company officials announced Monday, clearing the way for CEO Gregory Hayes to step into the role.
Kennedy, a 38-veteran of the former Raytheon Co. defense business, has served as chairman since April 2020, when Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp., then based in Farmington, formally consolidated operations under the banner of Raytheon Technologies Corp.
“It has been my honor to lead this organization and our exemplary employees around the world,” Kennedy said in a statement. “I have enjoyed the partnership with Greg and his talented management team, and I’m confident the company will continue to deliver on redefining the future of aerospace and defense.”
The company’s board of directors selected Hayes as Kennedy’s replacement, and Hayes will hold the chairman title while continuing to serve as chief executive officer.
During a conference call with analysts Tuesday, Hayes noted that it was Kennedy who first proposed combining the two companies in a 2018 phone conversation.
“Tom’s vision for the creation of Raytheon Technologies guided the completion of the merger and the past year of integration,” he said. “I want to thank Tom for all his support over the past year in making our merger a success. We wish Tom well in his future endeavors.”
Raytheon Technologies also released its first-quarter earnings Tuesday, reporting increases in both revenues and profits compared to the opening months of 2020, when the start of the COVID-19 pandemic caused the near collapse of the air travel industry.
Net income reached $753 million, or 50 cents per common share, up from a loss of $83 million, or 10 cents per common share, in the year-ago period. Net sales climbed from $11.3 billion in the first quarter of 2020 to $15.2 billion in the first three months of 2021.
Reviewing the status of the conglomerate’s integration efforts one year post-merger, Hayes said the company has done “many of the hard things,” including laying off workers who had become redundant.
But Raytheon Technologies still has several significant goals to tackle, including rolling out a common operating system and rationalizing digital operations. Hayes said he is looking to reduce the firm’s number of data centers from 30 to less than a dozen.
“We’re making good progress [with integration], but it is going to take some time” before full cost synergies from the linkup are realized, he said.
