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Few companies enjoy uncontested status, but Lockheed Martin is in a class of its own. The massive aerospace, defense, and technology company started less than thirty years ago has a whopping $65 billion in sales and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide. Seventy-four percent of Lockheed’s net sales in 2020 came from the US government. And on the list of US defense contractors, the company is in the top spot and far outpaces its closest competitors like Raytheon and Boeing.
Kevin Gingras is Lockheed Martin’s current vice president and associate general counsel of litigation and compliance. He joined the growing organization in June 2018, just two months before it landed a $480 million deal with the US Air Force to develop prototypes for hypersonic missiles. The weapons travel above the speed of sound at a range of one mile per second. Months later, Lockheed announced that it had won a NASA contract and was eligible to bid on lunar lander projects related to human exploration of the Earth’s moon and Mars.
Gingras attended high school in California before earning his bachelor’s degree from Fort Lewis College in 2000 and his JD from Notre Dame Law School in 2003. After law school graduation, he spent a year at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin where he clerked for Chief Judge Rudolph T. Randa. He followed that experience with another clerkship, this time for Judge Mary Beck Briscoe at the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
This solid foundation led Gingras to start his career in the US Attorney’s Office for Virginia’s Eastern District as a special assistant United States Attorney. After one year, he moved to the Depart of Justice’s Criminal Division where he served until 2011. In 2009, Gringas found himself at the epicenter of a case that drew national attention.
Zacarias Moussaoui, a co-conspirator in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, appealed a conviction from 2005. When Moussaoui argued he was unable to access evidence, Gingras argued against allowing a new trial and attempted to demonstrate on behalf of the Justice Department that the original trial was fair. A year later, Moussaoui’s original conviction and related life sentence were upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. At the time, Moussaoui was the lone individual convicted in a US courtroom for involvement in the attacks.
Next came a three-year stint with the FBI. From 2011 to 2014, Gingras held positions with the bureau, including those of special counsel to the director and deputy chief of staff where he advised on national security and other related matters.
One more important career stop set the stage for Gringras to join Lockheed Martin. He first logged four years as a trial attorney with the Department of Justice where he was part of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit in its fraud section. In that role as trial attorney, he prosecuted Benito Chinea and Joseph DeMeneses after the leaders of a US broker-dealer got involved in a scheme to bribe foreign officials in return for high-commission business.
“These Wall Street executives orchestrated a massive bribery scheme with a corrupt official in Venezuela to illegally secure tens of millions of dollars in business for their firm,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell in a Department of Justice press release. “The convictions and prison sentences of the CEO and managing director of a sophisticated Wall Street broker-dealer demonstrate that the Department of Justice will hold individuals accountable for violations of the FCPA and will pursue executives no matter where they are on the corporate ladder.”
After piling up directly relevant experience in top government entities, Gingras joined Lockheed Martin in June 2018 and was promoted to his current role two years later. He’s helping the contractor manage litigation and remain compliant as it continues to innovate for government agencies and expand its global footprint.
