L3Harris Technologies on Monday said its board has appointed Sam Mehta as president and CEO effective immediately after agreeing to part ways with Chris Kubasik, who had led the company since 2021, due to violations of the company’s code of conduct.
Kubasik’s lapse in conduct was not related to company finances, operations or customer relationships, the company said. Kubasik at one time was expected to lead Lockheed Martin where he was the company’s vice chairman, president, and chief operating officer but an alleged affair with a subordinate that violated the company’s code of conduct led to his dismissal in 2012.
The company reaffirmed its 2026 financial projections.
The rise of Mehta, 53, to the top executive role was within the company’s succession planning, according to Lewis Hay III, who is now independent chairman of the board. Previously, Hay was the lead independent director.
Mehta has been with L3Harris since 2023 and most recently has been president of the company’s Space & Mission Systems (SMS) and Communications & Spectrum Dominance (CSD) segments which combined count for more than 80% of L3Harris’ overall sales.
Before joining L3Harris as president of the then Communications Segment, Mehta had led the advanced structures and mechanical systems businesses of RTX. Before United Technologies Corp. acquired Raytheon to form RTX, Mehta was president of aftermarket services for UTC’s Aerospace Systems business. He also spent 17 years with Sikorsky, which Lockheed Martin acquired in 2015 from UTC.
Trusted Disruptor Strategy
Kubasik orchestrated L3Harris’ strategy as the “trusted disruptor,” helping mold the company into one with the scale of a larger prime contractor but with the agility of smaller and innovative entrants in the defense space. The company expects to do about $23.5 billion in sales this year.
Mehta and Hay said the agile approach will continue.
“Today, L3Harris has a portfolio purpose-built for the future of warfare, and we are well-positioned to continue executing our focuses growth strategy as The Trusted Disruptor,” Mehta said in a statement.
In May, Mehta’s CS&D team introduced Wraith Shield, an internally funded upgrade to a waveform used in the company’s tactical radios to turn them into a distributed sensor network to detect, track and mitigate threats from small drones. That team included Chris Aebli, who led Mission Critical Communications within CS&D and has been named president of the segment.
Aebli’s roles at L3Harris have included vice president of DoD Sales and VP of the U.S. DoD business, VP of the international business, and president of the legacy Global Communications Sector and Tactical Communications sector. He was an engineer at the Naval Underwater Systems Center before joining the company.
The SMD segment is now led by Lauren Barnes, who joined the company in 2023 and most recently was president of Spectrum Security. Before joining L3Harris, Barnes worked for Boeing and was the program manager on the company’s 777X passenger plane work in St. Louis, Missouri, deputy program manager of the T-7 jet trainer for the Air Force, a program manager for defense logistics services, chief of staff for government operations in Washington, D.C., and Global Strike Strategy manager.
As for Kubasik’s departure, L3Harris said in a statement that it “became aware of certain conduct by Kubasik that was not consistent with the values of the company as outlined in its code of conduct.” After an investigation that included help from independent counsel, “the board determined that it would be in the best interests of the company to enter into a separation agreement with Kubasik,” L3Harris said.
L3Harris also said “our values guide the actions we take every day.”
