Mark Rayha stepped up to the president’s office at Electric Boat in December 2024.
The Groton submarine yard, long one of the most prolific hirers in the state, has seen a gentle decline in its new job numbers over the last few years, and Rayha has said that there will be a further pause for part of this year because of ongoing supply chain issues.
However, it’s still projecting to hire 3,050 people in 2025, and the yard’s once-in-a-generation expansion is serving as a major catalyst for growth in eastern Connecticut.
The workforce — which currently stands at around 22,000 between Groton and the company’s other facility at Quonset Point, Rhode Island — is needed to support the ongoing Virginia class program, and construction of the new, larger Columbia class submarines, as well as overhaul work on older Los Angeles class boats.
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Rayha moved to Connecticut from Virginia, after a 30-year career with Electric Boat’s parent, General Dynamics.
The Michigan native joined GD Land Systems in 1989 at the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant and spent 17 years there. Then from 2006 through 2014, he worked at General Dynamics corporate headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia, rising to staff vice president of financial planning and analysis.
In late 2019, he got the call to move to Groton, at first as EB’s vice president of finance, then chief operating officer before taking the president’s office.