Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: PHEBE N. NOVAKOVIC

Novakovic has led General Dynamics, the world’s sixth largest aerospace and defense company, since 2013. During her tenure as CEO, Northrop Grumman won the Navy’s largest-ever contract, $24.2 billion, to build nuclear submarines. The Fortune Global 500 company employs more than 100,000 people and recorded $42.3 billion in revenue for fiscal 2023, a 7.3% increase from 2022.

Ranked No. 29 on Forbes’ 2023 World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, Novakovic is a graduate of Smith College and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Before joining General Dynamics in 2001, Novakovic worked for the CIA, the federal Office of Management and Budget, and under two deputy defense secretaries.

In the past year, General Dynamics appointed a new chief financial officer, and its Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technology subsidiary landed a $450 million contract to modernize systems for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Novakovic serves on several boards, including for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank. She is also board chairman of the Association of the United States Army and serves on the board of governors for Ford’s Theatre in its Executive Chairman’s Circle.