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2026 Virginia Power 50 List: CHRISTOPHER D. KASTNER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES, NEWPORT NEWS
Virginia Business //March 1, 2026//
2026 Virginia Power 50 List: CHRISTOPHER D. KASTNER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES, NEWPORT NEWS
Virginia Business //March 1, 2026//
Kastner was tapped in 2022 as CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries, the nation’s largest military shipbuilder and a Fortune 500 company that owns Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia’s biggest industrial employer. Prior to that, he served as chief operating officer and chief financial officer for HII, which has 44,000 employees and reported $11.5 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue.
Despite widespread economic hiccups among government contractors under the Trump administration, HII has fared relatively well. It did wind up laying off 167 NNS employees in November 2025, some of 471 workers who were furloughed in June, but HII and NNS were awarded $1.2 billion in Navy contract modifications in May 2025 and a $471.9 million Navy contract late last year. Also, HII announced in December it is investing $28 million to build an aircraft carrier and submarine plant in Hampton.
A graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Pepperdine University, Kastner was named to New York Life Insurance’s board in 2025. Kastner sits on the powerful board of the Business Roundtable, an association for the nation’s leading CEOs.
