Thomas Kennedy, Greg Hayes Meet With President Trump to Discuss Raytheon-UTC Merger

Thomas Kennedy, chairman and CEO of Raytheon, told Defense News in an interview published Wednesday that he and Greg Hayes, chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corp., met with President Donald Trump on June 10 to explain that the proposed Raytheon-UTC combination is complementary and not competitive.

“We don’t compete against companies, we compete against countries, and this would allow us to support international contracts to bring back jobs to the United States,” Kennedy, a 2019 Wash100 winner, told the publication at the Paris Air Show.

“It’s great for America, and [Trump] clearly understood it; he understood it’s tough competing internationally — you need a strong company to do that. He understood that aerospace and defense jobs are great jobs. Once he got the information, it was a very positive meeting,” he added.

He said the companies expect the combination to realize gross cost savings of $1B by year four and plan to return half of that savings to U.S. clients through reduced contract rates.