Top 100 Executives 2021 – Phebe Novakovic (CEO) General Dynamics

Whether born of an immigrant-daughter’s need to prove her allegiance to the United States or not, patriotism is high on the list of Phebe Novakovic’s priorities. It is matched only by her discretion.
That she should hold these particular values dear is perhaps unsurprising, coming as she does from an air-force family, and having walked the corridors of power in both Washington and Langley.

Indeed, having spent much of her childhood on US air-force bases in West Germany, where her Serb-born father was stationed during the Cold War, she learned what it was to be an American, the experience giving her “a sense of enemies at the gate”. A reflection that she maintains two decades into the 21st century.

Number-cruncher
After graduating from Smith College in 1979, she quickly came to the conclusion that her personality was ill-suited to a career in the military. She was to serve her country however, getting recruited into the CIA in 1983, before going on to earn an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, a qualification that would shape the course of her career thereafter.

From 1997 to 2001 Novakovic was special assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary of defence. In this role, she had a major say in the policy and budgetary decisions of the department, and as deputy director of national security, she helped President Clinton prepare the annual budget for the US military and intelligence agencies.

Novakovic's eight years in charge of General Dynamics have taken in three US presidents with contrasting opinions on how much public money should be allocated to the military

A woman who prefers numbers to words, she avoids interviews or “public proselytizing” on the merits of General Dynamics, a company which supplies vehicles and equipment to the aerospace and naval sectors as well as the sophisticated electronics systems needed to operate modern instruments of war. “Our clients are better served if we remain silent and do our job well,” stated Novakovic in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking during a rare public appearance, at Boston College in 2019, Novakovic remarked, “You can destroy yourself much faster than an enemy can destroy you.” She was talking about current-era internal divisions in the United States, but that quote also neatly sums up her attitude to off-the-cuff remarks given to the press.   

A woman in a man’s world              
When she joined General Dynamics two decades ago, she was that rare thing ─ a woman in a position of power at a key member of US military-industrial complex. Given her upbringing, she had little difficulty adjusting to the high testosterone world tanks and fighter jets, however. Before becoming CEO, she headed up the conglomerate’s Bath Iron Works, Electric Boat and Nassco divisions.

These days, there are numerous women making big decisions in the defense industry, from Marillyn Hewson at Lockheed Martin and Leanne Caret at Boeing, to Kathy Warden, the boss of Northrop Grumman. Yet with her influence in both political and military circles, arguably non are as powerful as Novakovic.

Her eight years in charge of General Dynamics have taken in three US presidents with contrasting opinions on how much public money should be allocated to the military.

Under Barack Obama, military spending fell to a relatively modest 3.1% of GDP in 2017, before being considerably increased under his successor, in light of the growing threat posed by Chinese military build-up and modernization.

Taking advantage of this new and improved budget, Novakovic led the acquisition of CSRA in 2018, a leading provider of IT services to the US Dept. of Defense and intelligence agencies, a deal that cost General Dynamics $9.6 billion.

With an annual salary of $19 million and her company in the black and retooled for the future, the 64-year-old can be as proud of her professional achievements as she is of her country.