Guiding the Journey

Stephen G. Eggen, CFO at Raytheon Missile Systems and vice chair of the TREO Board of Directors, admits he has been around the block a time or two.

Eggen has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for the past 36 years through ups and downs. He began his career in Southern California and had his first job with General Dynamics. Eggen started in general accounting and worked his way up to CFO. He moved to Tucson in 1993 and joined the TREO board two years ago.

Over the years he has seen the aerospace & defense industry consolidate several times, resulting in a sharp redefinition of the industry.

“A significant number of CEOs in the defense industry were called together by the then-secretary of defense. People called the meeting “The Last Supper,” he said.

The secretary of defense told the group that many of them would no longer be sitting around the table, that the industry needed consolidation. “Hughes, Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing...they all started to wonder who was going to be left,” Eggen recalled.

All of this had a huge impact on Tucson.

In 1992 Hughes led the consolidation of the defense industry by acquiring the missile business of General Dynamics. As part of the transition it closed five facilities in California and relocated 2,500 families to Tucson. Eggen and his family were among those who made the move.