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.
Further consolidation took place in 1997 when Raytheon acquired Hughes’ defense business. Raytheon moved additional missile businesses to Tucson, including that of Texas Instruments which it had also acquired. Today Raytheon has some 11,000 employees in Southern Arizona and 75,000 worldwide.
Raytheon chose to expand the Tucson facility because it had a top-notch engineering and manufacturing facility as well as access to the University of Arizona, a top school for engineering.
“Plus there was a lifestyle attraction to recruit engineers and it was fundamentally affordable – all the classic things you look for in locating a company,” Eggen said.
While Eggen has an eye on Raytheon’s continued success he also has a strong desire to see Tucson flourish. This is what led him to join the TREO board two years ago. He wasn’t sure about making the commitment at first, so he sat down with TREO’s Joe Snell.
“Joe talked about vision and all the ways TREO was helping with that. He talked about how we grow and attract business and economic growth to the region,” Eggen said. “After that, I was on board. I wanted to be involved with things other than the missile business. It gives me the opportunity to help the community.”
As vice chair of TREO’s board, Eggen said he and the board will continue to build on the success of the past six years.
“We need to further the vision we have laid out in the four strategic areas and get the community involved in what’s important. We also need to get the right communications out to industry leaders,” he said. “It’s a journey, not a near-term direction. If we can accomplish that, we can declare a success.”