Northrop Grumman Corp. and former executive Scott Seymour just exchanged parting gifts: He helped give the underdog contractor a win on a $35 billion Air Force refueling tanker contract, and Northrop gave him $300,000, Bloomberg News reports.
Seymour’s payment is a “special completion award” for running the Integrated Systems unit that led the tanker bid, Los Angeles-based Northrop said in a regulatory filing today.
Seymour’s retirement, announced Sept. 19, became effective Feb. 29, the same day Northrop won the contract over Boeing Co., which had supplied the Air Force tankers for more than half a century and was the unanimous pick to win in a Bloomberg analyst survey. Seymour had already received a cash bonus of $800,000 for his 2007 performance, the company said in a Feb. 26 filing.
The Northrop executive received total compensation of $6.07 million in 2006, according to the company’s proxy statement for the period. Northrop hasn’t released 2007 data. Seymour, 57, spent 24 years at Northrop.
Northrop, the third-largest U.S. defense contractor, gained 51 cents to $78.88 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 4.2 percent in the past 12 months. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. and Chicago-based Boeing are the Pentagon’s top two suppliers.
Northrop won the tanker contract in partnership with European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. Seymour’s long-standing relationship with Ralph Crosby, chief executive officer of EADS North America, helped produce the winning entry. When Seymour took the helm of the Integrated Systems unit in January 2002, he replaced Crosby, who left Northrop for EADS.
