Jerry Tarnacki, vice president of quality and mission assurance at Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE: AJRD), has been named senior VP of the firm’s newly created space business unit.
Tarnacki will directly report to Eileen Drake, Aerojet’s president and CEO, and manage all programs related to defense, NASA, space and launch strategies, in-space propulsion and commercial launch platforms through the company’s facility in Florida, Aerojet Rocketdyne said Friday.
The 30-year aerospace and defense industry veteran joined the company in December 2015.
His career prior to Aerojet Rocketdyne includes time as VP of maintenance repair and overhaul business at United Technologies Corp.’s (NYSE: UTX) Pratt & Whitney subsidiary and lieutenant colonel at the U.S. Air Force.
John Schneider, site director for the Sacramento, California-based A&D contractor’s Los Angeles facility, succeeds Tarnacki as VP of quality and mission assurance and will directly report to Mark Tucker, the firm’s chief operating officer, the company announced Friday.
Schneider will help advance the implementation of the firm’s new operating system across its space and defense programs and 14 sites.
He is a 28-year company veteran and a member of the Aerojet Rocketdyne Foundation’s board of directors.
