William Brown will slide into the driver’s seat of Harris Corp. in December.
The company named Brown as its next president and CEO, effective Nov. 1. He succeeds Howard Lance, who is retiring. The company board said it expects eventually to name Brown chairman as well. In the meantime, starting in January, Thomas Dattilo will be non-executive chairman of the board.
Harris— which includes the broadcast manufacturing arm familiar to the radio industry — has $6 billion of annual revenue and 16,000 employees.
Brown came from United Technologies Corp., where he had several senior roles since 1997, most recently senior vice president, corporate strategy and development. Prior to that he was president of UTC’s Fire & Security division.
In the announcement, Brown said, “During the past decade Harris has transitioned into a diversified provider of ultra-reliable communications and information technologies to government agencies and commercial markets worldwide.”
The board commended Lance for leading the company to “steady, strong top- and bottom-line growth, which has increased over the past seven years at a compound annualized rate of 14 and 22 percent respectively.”
