BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 

Mr. Moak brings more than 32 years of experience in the marine industry to this position including ship design, systems engineering, and platform systems integration for a broad range of U.S and international customers.  His professional portfolio at Gibbs & Cox includes senior leadership positions in corporate management with extensive experience in corporate and financial management, strategic planning, customer relations, program management, business development, naval architecture, structural design, exploratory/concept and feasibility studies, contract, preliminary and detail design.  Mr. Moak is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BSE degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

Carol Smith is currently a strategy consultant to the high tech industry, including Fortune 50 and international companies.  Prior to her retirement from Lockheed Martin Corporation in June of 2005, Carol was vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Corporation's Littoral Ships and Systems business. Prior to this position, Mrs. Smith led Lockheed Martin's unprecedented new entry into the shipbuilding marketplace by winning the multi-billion dollar U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship program.  Prior to joining Lockheed Martin Corporation, Mrs. Smith led the Washington Operations for Rockwell Collins.  With Rockwell International Corporation since 1985, she held positions of increasing responsibility in the finance, contracts, government relations, management, lobbying and marketing/sales functions, serving the companies' domestic, international, commercial and government interests.  Mrs. Smith holds a BS in Business from Biola University and an MS in Procurement and Acquisition Management/MBA.

An experienced senior executive and business unit manager with over thirty years of experience in engineering, plant, operations and general management roles, Howard Kympton is a Vice President with C&H Global Security, LLC, a renowned consulting firm with an international reputation for providing successful guidance on leading-edge issues in the maritime, transportation and critical infrastructure sectors to private industry as well as to domestic and international governments. Throughout his career Mr. Kympton has had full P&L responsibility for multiple, separate business units both in and outside the United States. Of specific note is Mr. Kympton’s development and efficient management of worldwide supply chains, emanating from many third world areas and supporting numerous major consumer product food companies, e.g., PepsiCo, McDonald’s, YUM Brands Kraft/General Foods and Nestle.  Accordingly he was invited to join the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 and led the development of an Enterprise Architecture data fusion system to spotlight the transit of goods and their security throughout the global supply chain entering the US. Concurrently, he was an active participant in the National Maritime Security Plan development, the National Transportation System Security Plan, and DHS/DOD Maritime Domain Awareness Working Groups on Strategy and Plans, Intelligence and Common Operating Picture.  A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, Mr. Kympton also obtained an MS in Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University and an MBA in Management from Long Island University. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel, Corps of Engineers, with degrees from the Command and General Staff College and the National Defense University.

Mr. White is Vice President of Finance and the Chief Financial Officer of Gibbs and Cox, Inc.  His entire business career has been at Gibbs and Cox, where he has advanced his career in positions of increasing responsibility.  He has held the positions of Cost/Pricing Manager, Financial Accounting Manager, Assistant Treasurer and Treasurer.  Mr. White possesses a combination of cost accounting and financial accounting capabilities, which enhances the team he supports.  His experience enables him to identify and implement process improvements that control costs, increase accuracy, consistency and efficiency.  In his role as Vice President of Finance, Mr. White is responsible for all corporate and Administrative matters. He develops, and is responsible for, a multi-million dollar operating budget, controlling actual costs to budgeted costs.  Some of Mr. White’s other duties and responsibilities include: proposal and contract pricing, pricing strategies, and investment strategy and audit responsibility of the Gibbs & Cox multi-million dollar pension plan assets.  Mr. White is a 1979 graduate of Fordham University with a degree in Accounting.

Mr. Daffan is currently a senior consultant for companies providing services to the Federal Government. Previously, Mr. Daffan was the founder and Chief Executive Officer for AERA Incorporated, an engineering and information technology company. During Mr. Daffan’s tenure with AERA, the company grew from a small start-up company to a $50 million revenue company with nine field offices and over 500 employees. During this period Mr. Daffan was responsible for the strategic vision and planning to grow the company from a small business into a large company providing high level engineering and information services to the Navy and other federal agencies. From 1993 to 1996 AERA Incorporated was on the INC 500 list of fastest growing private companies in America. AERA was also on Washington Technology’s Fast 50 list for four consecutive years. In 1994 KPMG Peat Marwick presented Mr. Daffan the High Tech Entrepreneur of the year award for his leadership of AERA.  Prior to forming AERA, Mr. Daffan held positions of increasing responsibility with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, Advanced Marine Enterprises and Advanced Technology Incorporated. Mr. Daffan has held positions of Senior Design Engineer, Senior Marine Engineer, and Program Director for Research & Development Programs with these corporations.  Mr. Daffan is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Aerospace & Ocean Engineering and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering.

Mr. Prince is President and Chief Executive Officer of an aerospace support company.   Mr. Prince has been Chief Executive Officer and President of public and private companies and Managing Member and Chief Operating Officer of a private equity fund, Managing Member of investment banking and consulting firms, a principal of a strategic advisory and merchant-banking group, and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the area of sealift and logistics.  Mr. Prince also was an attorney with a major Wall Street law firm and is admitted to practice before New York state courts, Federal courts, and the United States Supreme Court.  Mr. Prince is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, earning his B.S. in Mathematics and Physics, the United States Naval Submarine School and the Naval Nuclear Power Program.  He received, concurrently, his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School respectively.

Mr. Higney was the President of Gibbs & Cox, Inc. from 2002 until his retirement in 2005. He is currently a senior consultant for the company, and recently participated in the Aegis Ashore Concept Design and LCS FY’ 10-15 Proposal efforts.  For five years, he was Head of the company’s Washington Division with responsibility for all aspects of the company’s early-stage ship design and engineering capabilities.  He has over 40 years experience in ship design, and attained within the company a broad range of positions with progressively increasing levels of technical and managerial responsibilities.  Included in these positions were responsibilities for machinery design, noise/RCS signatures, and computer-aided design and engineering.  Prior to his Washington assignment, Mr. Higney was the Division Head of the New York Technical Division responsible for work on Flight Upgrade designs being incorporated in the DDG51 Class and for work on frigates being constructed in Taiwan.  In 1991, Mr. Higney was appointed as Vice President, Systems Engineering and Computer-Aided Design. In that capacity, he developed the concept of a comprehensive Product Model comprised of 3-D CAD models and a networked relational database.  He was an active participant in the Navy-Industry Digital Data Exchange Standards (NIDDESC) project.  He earned a BS (Magna Cum Laude) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MS in Nuclear Engineering from Columbia University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the states of New York and Virginia.