Hughes Aircraft Names Richardson as President

D. Kenneth Richardson has been named president and chief operating officer of Hughes Aircraft, following a 37-year career at the Los Angeles-based aerospace firm.

Richardson, 58, who has been executive vice president-operations at Hughes, succeeds Donald H. White, who retired Dec. 1. Since General Motors acquired Hughes in 1985, a new slate of senior corporate executives has taken over, but it includes many Hughes veterans.

Hughes officials are still considering whether to fill Richardson’s former job as head of operations for Hughes’ six major operating groups. By filling the vacant slot, Richardson would become more involved in financial and strategic matters for the company.

Hughes has gone through a difficult year in 1989. It reduced its ranks by 6,000 in an effort to become more cost competitive and to accommodate declining business in some areas. Even with looming federal defense cutbacks, Richardson now has a positive outlook.

“I am very optimistic and upbeat about the future of the company,” Richardson said in a telephone interview. “As we look at the next calendar year, we feel very, very good about that.”

Richardson is credited by many Hughes insiders with restoring the company’s tactical missile business during the mid-1980s when manufacturing problems were cited by the military services for a series of punitive financial actions against the company. After that effort, Richardson was promoted to executive vice president.

A private pilot, Richardson has flown in a number of high-performance military jets and has espoused a philosophy that top executives get out into the field to see how their products are functioning. Richardson is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and from UCLA, a master’s in business administration.