Val Zarov

Curtiss-Wright is a Global Integrated provider of highly engineered, technologically advanced products and services in Aerospace/Industrial, Defense Electronics, Naval and Power markets.

General Manager, Integrated Systems
Promoted to integrate avionics and defense integration business, improve profitability performance and bolster growth. Responsible for the system integration business ~$50M
• Successfully integrated Commercial Avionics business unit with Defense Integration business resulting in revenue growth (25%), profitability (600bps+ improvement) and market share expansion (4 major customers/technology markets) by strategic product restructuring, divestiture of low growth product lines, contract renegotiation and synergetic technology integration
• Successfully improved Working Capital performance from 40%+ to under 26% by driving contract financing renegotiation, inventory control, improved metric management and strategic vendor/customer partnerships
• Increased annual sales to over $85M while improving profitability (ROS) into 20%+ from being well under 10% executing re-organization of local management, engineering, services, and program teams

Promoted to improve business performance in engineering and program management execution by incorporating best practices, process improvement and team collaboration to facilitate improvement in customer satisfaction and employee retention
• Established and matured key Program Management process (EVMS, R&O, Scope Management and Proposal development) which resulted in improved forecast accuracy across development and production contracts: revenue (97%+) and gross margin (95%+) forecast predictability
• Pursued and captured key development business ~ $100M+ by establishing EVMS, CMMI and project cost tracking capability to execute large CPIF development contracts
• Improved engineering execution (requirements management, process re-alignment and skill development) – resulted in engineering milestone execution improvement by 50% and reduced engineering and program management turn-over to under 15%
• Reduced unplanned cost growth by 25% across major development projects by establishing strategic partnership to subcontract high risk technology while mitigating program risk and maintaining contract technical leadership

Selected for the role to expand program portfolio with key customers in UAS/UAV market segment by leveraging technical leadership and improving customer relationships
• Expanded key account portfolio in UAS market by driving consistent performance, establishing relationships and pro-actively soliciting/driving follow on opportunities with existing programs – resulting in $200M+ follow-on business over 15 years
• Introduced, negotiated, and executed incentive-based contracts resulting in significantly higher profitability performance (800bps+ increase)
• Drove pro-active engagement and awareness with local Congressional members and in conjunction with Primes to facilitate funding retention on major UAS platforms resulting in program funding protection and increased follow-on opportunity pipe-line (~$100M+)

Recruited to drive technology growth in the emerging UAS market and to resolve open technical challenges
• System architect and technical lead for high-speed/high-density rugged processing systems on deployed major UAS platforms (generated $200M+ in revenue from 2005 - 2022)
• Resolved major technical issues with previously designed systems that resulted in high visibility program to continue through deployment while mitigating funding cut impact: mitigated further margin erosion ~ $2M+ and protected future business pipe-line (over $100M)

Privately held business specializing in Guidance/Navigation/Control solutions and high-technology innovation research in the rugged inertial navigation market space

Hired to expand engineering capability in the rugged inertial systems market space and to enable small/SBIR business transformation into a mature and capable infrastructure with prototype/rapid manufacturing capability
• Captured new business and doubled annual revenue over 4 year period by implementing live product demonstration and technology partnerships that leveraged expanded on-site engineering and program management capability
• Successfully launched family to inertial sensors and systems (MEMS IMUs, AHRS) that increased annual sales by 40% and provided market expansion into adjacent applications (hand-held navigations, small munitions, etc)
• Reduced engineering prototyping and manufacturing costs by 25% and time-to-market by 30% via building out on-site machining (CNC) and board manufacturing capability (vertically integrated development/manufacturing capability)