Rockwell to Move Its Headquarters to El Segundo
Rockwell International, one of the nation’s largest aerospace contractors, will announce today that it is moving its corporate headquarters from Pittsburgh to offices near the Los Angeles International Airport, The Times has learned.
The move to the city of El Segundo is an important symbolic change but one that will not affect employees in either location. It will make Rockwell the fourth-largest California public corporation, based on 1987 sales of $12.1 billion.
“In view of our increasing corporate presence in Southern California, we recently designated El Segundo as the company’s principal executive office and principal communications center,” Rockwell Vice President Richard R. Mau said in a letter announcing the move.
The aerospace firm builds aircraft, satellites, rocket engines, manned spacecraft, missile guidance systems, computer chips and a range of other sophisticated defense equipment in California, representing more than 42% of its 1987 sales. Rockwell has a work force of 37,000 in California, making the firm one of the largest industrial employers in the state.
The Rockwell move leaves in Pittsburgh a number of important corporate staff functions, responsibilities that most major companies prefer to centralize at a single headquarters.
The company has no plans to relocate those operations to California, Rockwell spokesman William Mellon said.
But if the company ultimately decides to relocate its entire corporate staff to El Segundo, a phased move over several years would obviously help soften the impact for employees and for the city of Pittsburgh. Rockwell has 300 workers at its corporate office in Pittsburgh and an identical number in El Segundo.
The move to California more closely identifies Rockwell with its enormous aerospace business. Even though the B-1 bomber production program ended earlier this year, Rockwell has a healthy aerospace business with pockets of rapid growth. Its Rocketdyne unit, which produces rocket engines, is undergoing a rapid buildup.
In addition, the move may help the company enlist political support for its defense programs from the California congressional delegation, the nation’s largest state contingent with 45 House seats. Rockwell waged a tremendously successful political campaign in its B-1 bomber program, utilizing strong local political support to defeat bomber critics.
The large aerospace portion of the corporation was formerly North American Aircraft Co., which the much smaller Rockwell Standard acquired in 1967. The newly merged firm was named North American Rockwell and that was later changed to Rockwell International.
Beall Approved Change
The headquarters move culminates a series of steps in recent years in which the firm attempted to position itself closer to its large California operations. In the past year, Rockwell said it had dual headquarters in each city.
Rockwell Chairman and Chief Executive Donald R. Beall, who also holds the title of president, is a long time resident of Corona del Mar in Orange County, commuting to his offices in El Segundo daily by helicopter. Beall personally approved the change, which did not require board action.
The company said it will retain various corporate staff functions that are now located in Pittsburgh, including its finance, international, legal and auditing operations. The firm has its personnel, public relations, contracting and executive management and planning operations in El Segundo.
Of Rockwell’s corporate officers, nine are located in El Segundo and seven are located in Pittsburgh. Rockwell is legally a Delaware corporation, so the headquarters move does not have any apparent legal consequences.
The company will relocate its headquarters to an existing executive office building on Imperial Highway, nearby its huge complex of aerospace facilities near the Los Angeles International Airport.
