The aerospace industry has grown considerably over the years. Market intelligence solutions provider Infiniti Research attributes this development to economic growth around the world, a boom in international and domestic air travel, and support from the private sector as well as government.
Professional services network company Deloitte had projected 2020 to be a rebound year for aerospace following declines in the commercial sector in 2019 but the coronavirus pandemic has upended expectations.
David Calhoun, the CEO of Boeing, believes it would take years before the industry’s growth trend is restored, a sentiment shared by industry body Aerospace Wales about the state of affairs in the U.K. In the face of such challenges, having a competitive intelligence expert in your team is especially crucial.
The following are profiles of CI practitioners employed by some of the aerospace industry’s biggest names.
Senior Business
Development Lead
Executive Profile: Jeremy Tamsett, Senior Business Development Lead at Lockheed Martin
Jeremy Tamsett is a seasoned strategic value creator who recently joined Lockheed Martin as a full-time senior lead of business development. He brings over 17 years of experience in strategic planning, business development, market research, competitive intelligence and program management and assessment.
Tamsett most recently worked at space launch services provider United Launch Alliance as a business development lead for the national security space focused on identifying new business capture opportunities in the classified markets. For over two years, he conducted market research and competitive intelligence projects, supported ULA’s business capture management team and provided subject matter expertise on national security space areas to the senior leadership team, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Prior to joining the aerospace industry, Tamsett spent over eight years serving in increasingly responsible roles within the intelligence community. He worked at the National Counterterrorism Center and the National Counterproliferation Center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he managed highly classified projects, led high-impact programs and helped address national challenges.
He also served as an intelligence analyst for counterproliferation, counterterrorism and counterintelligence divisions at the National Security Agency for more than two years.
Tamsett is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Strategic Security, a professional journal published quarterly by Henley-Putnam School of Strategic Security.
Manager of Research &
Intelligence, People
Analytics
Executive Profile: Patricia Kitchen, Manager of Research & Intelligence, People Analytics at Northrop Grumman
Patricia Kitchen works for Northrop Grumman as the manager of research and intelligence and people analytics, a role she assumed in January.
As a longtime competitive intelligence executive, Kitchen has over 15 years of experience working with companies and organizations such as GovWin, FedBizOpps, Federal Procurement Database, Bloomberg Government, IDC, Frost & Sullivan, Govini, Dacis and Gartner.
Prior to being appointed to her current position, Kitchen spent nearly a year serving as Northrop Grumman’s manager of capture and business development, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She also took on the role of capture strategist, providing capture strategy leadership to achieve corporate and sector priority wins. Kitchen took charge of strategy sessions, independent capture assessments, risk-based assessments and capture training.
Kitchen was also tapped by Northrop Grumman in March 2015 to serve as a senior competitive intelligence and price to win analyst. In the said role, she conducted both market and competitive analysis and contributed to the company’s price to win and pricing strategy.
The aforementioned role marks her return to Northrop Grumman; she had previously joined the company in 2005 but left in 2010 for ManTech, where she handled business development. After a year she moved to defense and space company TASC — now known as Engility — where she was responsible for competitive analysis and marketing research. In 2014 she moved to Booz Allen Hamilton, where she focused on market sensing and business development, then in 2015 returned to Northrop.
Kitchen attended Old Dominion University, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree in marketing and a Master of Business Administration degree. She also completed a capture executive strategy program and a market strategy development executive program from The University of Chicago Booth of School Business.
Head of Forecasting
Executive Profile: Marcelo Pretti, GE Aviation’s Head of Forecasting for Commercial Engines
Marcelo Pretti serves as General Electric Aviation’s head of forecasting for commercial engines. He leverages over 15 years of experience in sales and marketing management. His sales leadership career spans the industrial, health and hygiene sectors.
Before he assumed his current intelligence leadership role in January 2018, Pretti served as a GE Aviation’s sales director for Santiago, Chile and Cincinnati. He was responsible for implementing proposal strategies and sales agreements. His duties also included handling customer negotiations for new engines and services, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Pretti joined the company in January 2012 as a Six Sigma Black Belt certified professional whose duties spanned Europe and the Middle East.
In that role, he managed cost-of-ownership programs for key customers of GE’s commercial engines. He also mentored field service engineers in the execution of Lean Six Sigma projects.
Prior to joining GE Aviation, Pretti served for five years as a global business manager for Tredegar Film Products. He was responsible for the baby care business unit within the company’s consumer care group. Pretti joined Tredegar in December 2004 as a sales manager for Latin America. He is credited with driving strategic development within the region, with a focus on the hygiene disposable market.
He spent eight years holding various sales and engineering roles at 3M, a mechanical and industrial engineering company headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota. His roles in the company included senior sales executive, technical service engineer and trainee process engineer.
Pretti earned a master’s degree in marketing from Fundacao Getulio Vargas and a bachelor’s degree in production engineering from Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos.
Strategic Initiatives
Director
Executive Profile: Andrew Jetton, Collins Aerospace’s Strategic Initiatives Director
Andrew Jetton works as part of Collins Aerospace’s corporate strategy and development team as the director of strategic initiatives. He evaluates market dynamics, recommends strategic alternatives and develops go-to-market plans to drive business growth across the company.
Jetton’s team focuses on the global defense segment and emerging commercial aerospace sectors, including urban air mobility, autonomous aircraft and advanced manned and unmanned platforms.
He joined Collins Aerospace in November 2018, when his former employer, Rockwell Collins, combined with United Technologies Corp.’s aerospace systems division. Jetton spent more than seven years at Rockwell Collins serving in increasingly responsible roles including director of government systems business development, manager of airborne solutions marketing and director of government systems strategy, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Prior to joining Rockwell Collins, Jetton briefly served at The University of Iowa-Tripple School of Management as a business director of the Strategic Innovation Academy, responsible for leading professional development activities for MBA students and managing marketing, external affairs and outside-of-class activities with employers, alumni and advisory council.
He also worked at NRG Energy for almost nine years, most recently serving as director of electronic vehicle services.
Jetton earned a master’s degree in finance and entrepreneurship from The University of Texas at Austin’s The Red McCombs School of Business.
Competitive Intelligence
Analyst
Executive Profile: Melissa Elliott, Competitive Intelligence Analyst at Northrop Grumman
Melissa Elliott is a 16-year veteran at Northrop Grumman who has been serving as a full-time competitive intelligence analyst since January 2007.
Elliott works as part of Northrop Grumman’s competitive assessment / position-to-win group, where she provides sector-wide research and analysis support to identify potential business opportunities; locate subject matter experts; oversee an online data hub of customer, company and program information; manage sector-wide online resources; and collaborate with partners on special projects.
The competitive intelligence professional joined the aerospace and defense company in 2003 as a manager of the Information Research Center. She held this role for more than two years before assuming the position of manager of market analysis, responsible for providing analytic insights to support the development of business and strategic planning activities, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Elliott has extensive experience in conducting research and analysis to pursue new business opportunities in the U.S. government sector, specifically in the defense and aerospace areas.
She is also an experienced librarian, having served as a library manager at the Embassy of Australia in Washington, D.C. In this role, Elliott developed a procedure manual for library functions, provided online database research training for embassy personnel, prepared the library’s annual budget and eliminated redundant services.
Elliott holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in Library Science degree from the University of Maryland.
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