Kathy J. Warden is an American business executive who has been chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Northrop Grumman since 2019.

Education

Warden graduated from Smithsburg High School.^[2] She then earned a bachelor's degree at James Madison University in 1992,^[3] and a master's degree in business administration at George Washington University in 1999.^[4][5]

Career

Warden is a cybersecurity and information technology expert.^[6] Early in her career, she worked for General Electric for nearly a decade, and held executive roles at Veridian Corporation and General Dynamics.^[4][7][8] Warden was also a principal in a venture capital firm, where she helped companies improve their business models and electronic publishing services.^[9]

Warden joined Northrop Grumman in 2008, initially as vice president and general manager of the company's cybersecurity business.^[10] In 2015, while president of Northrop Grumman Information Systems,^[11] she was included in Federal Computer Week's "Federal 100" list; the magazine credited her for increasing Northrop Grumman's participation in the CyberPatriot program and creation of the Advanced Cyber Technology Center, and for overseeing $1.5 billion in contracts for the 2014 fiscal year.^[12] Warden began her tenure as president of the Mission Systems sector in January 2016, when the company merged its Information Systems and Electronics Systems sectors.^[6][13][14] She was president and COO of Northrop Grumman since September 2017,^[14] and her tenure as CEO started on January 1, 2019.^[6]

Warden has been credited with leading the integration of Orbital ATK, later Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.^[6][15] She was elected to Northrop Grumman's board of directors since her appointment to the CEO role in mid-2018.^[4][13]

Board membership and recognition

Warden was on the Clinton administration's Internet Advisory Council.^[4][9] She has a position on the board of the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.^[9][16] She is on the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond board, as of mid-2018.^[4] She also works with the Aspen Institute's computer security strategy group.^[3]

She joined James Madison University's board of visitors in October 2018.^[3] Previously, Warden was on the board of the university's College of Business, starting in 2016.^[3] She received a Business Achievement Award from James Madison University's Beta Gamma Sigma chapter in 2018.^[17]

Warden was included in Washingtonian's 2017 list of the "most powerful women" in Washington, D.C.,^[18] as well as the magazine's 2018 list of "Washington's Top Tech Leaders".^[19] She has ranked number 22 and number 80 on Fortune's and CEOWORLD magazine's lists of "most powerful women", respectively.^[6][20][21] In 2023, she ranked 38th in Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women".^[22]