Kari Wilkinson takes the helm at Ingalls Shipbuilding as president
America's largest military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) announced that its board of directors has elected Kari Wilkinson to serve as executive vice president of HII and president of HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division, effective April 1. She will succeed Brian Cuccias, who announced that he will retire April 1.
Kari Wilkinson, who will report to HII executive vice president and COO Chris Kastner, currently serves as Ingalls’ vice president, program management.
Wilkinson began her career with Ingalls as an associate naval architect in 1996. Since that time, she has supported major shipbuilding production events and milestones from positions in Engineering, has worked closely with Business Development on requirements and preliminary ship designs for both domestic and international customers, and also coordinated the prioritization of equipment and processes in Operations during the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.
Wilkinson transitioned into Program Management in 2007 as a ship program manager for the San Antonio-class LPD program, assuming the position of vice president, program management in 2016. In this current role, she has profit and loss responsibility for all elements of program execution and serves as the principal liaison to the Navy and Coast Guard for all platforms in the Ingalls portfolio.