Kathleen Hicks Tackles Industrial Base Resiliency With Defense Business Board

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense, met with members of the Defense Business Board and informed them about the initiatives to strengthen the defense industrial base’s resiliency, according to a DOD meeting readout released Thursday.

During DBB’s first quarterly meeting for fiscal year 2023, the two-time Wash100 Award recipient emphasized to the board consisting of private sector leaders her focus on reducing defense supply chain risks while boosting the resilience of the DIB.

Bridging workforce gaps, streamlining acquisitions, on-shoring/friend-shoring as well as ensuring DIB’s diversity and competitive environment are some of her priorities.

In response, members made recommendations to help with the Pentagon’s resiliency concerns. They based it on industry and private sector business management, principles and practices.

Hicks was joined by Deborah Rosenblum, who is performing the duties of assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy, in her session with DBB members.

In an earlier event, Hicks also hosted executives from prime contractors BAE Systems, Boeing (NYSE: BA), General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), HII (NYSE: HII), L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) to talk about the National Defense Strategy.