Overview
Ron Sugar is an accomplished CEO, chairman, board member, and advisor. He served as Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman from 2003 until his retirement in 2010. He has been successfully coaching a select number of CEOs since 2014. An engineer’s CEO-coach, he excels at navigating complicated succession scenarios and his experience includes 11 CEO succession transitions. Sugar understands the challenge of preparing C-suite executives to follow an iconic leader in an iconic brand.
Career History
He is currently Chairman of the Board of Uber Technologies, a director of Apple, Inc., a director of Amgen, Inc., and was formerly lead director of Chevron Corporation. He also serves as senior advisor to the private investment firm Ares Management LLC, Bain & Co., and Singapore’s Temasek Investment Company.
During his tenure at Northrop Grumman, he helped grow the organization to become one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, with 120,000 employees and $35B annual revenue. Prior to being Chairman and CEO, Sugar served as the President and Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining Northrop Grumman in 2001, Sugar held senior operating, technical, and financial positions including CFO of TRW, Inc., President and COO of TRW Aerospace, and President and COO of Litton Industries.
He is a trustee of the University of Southern California, where he also holds the Judge Widney Chair as Professor of Management and Technology, member of UCLA Anderson School of Management board of advisors, and director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.
He is past chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of both the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He was appointed earlier by the President of the United States to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.
Personal
Sugar received BS (summa cum laude), MS, and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from UCLA and was subsequently honored as UCLA Alumnus of the Year. He lives with his wife in California. They have two grown children.