Bruno Replaces Gass as President of ULA Effective Immediately

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced today (August 12) that Lockheed Martin’s Tory Bruno is replacing Michael Gass as its President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.  Gass has been President and CEO since ULA was created in 2006.  ULA said the two men would work “collaboratively to ensure a smooth transition.”

ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing that builds and launches the Delta and Atlas rockets.  Gass has an extensive career in the launch vehicle business, but that business is changing with the entrance of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 into the marketplace and deteriorating geopolitical relationships between the United States and Russia that pose challenges for ULA’s acquisition of the Russian RD-180 rocket engines that power the Atlas V.  The announcement said that he is retiring.

Bruno comes to his new job from serving as vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Strategic and Missile Defense Systems.  Both men won praise from Lockheed Martin and Boeing executives in today’s press release.  Lockheed Martin’s Rick Ambrose pointed out that “Mike’s track record speaks for itself: 86 successful launches in a row.”  As for Bruno, Ambrose called him “an ideal leader to take the reins of ULA” who will “apply his proven track record of driving customer focus, innovation and affordability to shape ULA’s future.”  Boeing’s Craig Cooning expressed gratitude for Gass’s leadership and said Bruno is “well-qualified to ensure ULA keeps pace with changing customer needs and launch industry dynamics.”

ULA recently initiated a marketing campaign focusing on ULA’s reliability and experience in launching satellites, especially for national security purposes.  It is getting ready to launch a commercial satellite, Worldview-3, tomorrow and conducted two successful launches — AFSPC-4 and a GPS navigation satellite — in one week in late July-early August. 

But SpaceX is nipping at its heels, accusing the Air Force of illegally awarding a sole-source contract to ULA last year.  The case is pending before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.  Pressure is building to allow “new entrants” like SpaceX to compete for government launches to reduce launch costs.

Editor’s note:  The ULA press release states that Bruno was most recently “vice president and general manager” of Lockheed Martin Strategic and Missile Defense Systems.  However, his LinkedIn profile states that he is President of that part of the company.