THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509020424
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Many of Pat Phillips' personal landmarks coincide with those of Newport News Shipbuilding.
Shortly after going to work at the giant Peninsula shipyard, he was producing components for the record-breaking superliner United States, delivered in 1952.
The first nuclear-power aircraft carrier, the Enterprise, was launched in 1960, the same year he received his engineering degree.
Now as the shipyard is beginning to emerge as a commercial shipbuilder again, Chairman Phillips retires Nov. 1, at age 64.
``Pat has spent his entire career at the shipyard, and he is a model of a leader who, by dint of hard work, devotion and talent, worked his way to the top of the organization,'' said Dana Mead, chairman and chief executive of the shipyard's parent company, Tenneco Inc.
Tenneco will name a successor at its Sept. 12 board meeting. It is widely expected that William P. Fricks, the yard's president, will succeed him, just as he succeeded then-chairman Edward J. Campbell in 1994.
Phillips had been Campbell's No. 2 man at the shipyard since 1987, first as executive vice president and after 1992 as president.
During 48 years at Newport News Shipbuilding, Phillips rose to chairman and chief executive from apprentice machinist.
After graduating from the yard's apprentice school in 1954, Phillips served two years in the Army. On his return the shipyard sent him to Virginia Tech to earn an engineering degree. Over the years he served the shipyard in many capacities as he was groomed for the top position, including jobs in yard operations, marketing and engineering.
He has led the company through some of its most difficult years. Since the end of the Cold War, Navy spending on ship construction has fallen off. Phillips oversaw a massive cost-cutting campaign and the yard's downsizing from nearly 30,000 employees to little more than 19,000 today.
The shipyard had to fight to land the contract to build another aircraft carrier, CVN-76, and is still scrapping to preserve its share of submarine construction.
The Navy has been the shipyard's sole customer since the early 1980s. To survive the shrinking of the fleet, the shipyard has begun looking for commercial customers and foreign military sales.
Phillips has been instrumental in those efforts.
``Our people have responded well,'' he said. ``And that has allowed us to capture new U.S. Navy work, such as the contracts for construction of CVN-76 and for carrier overhauls. We've also had significant success in entering the highly competitive commercial shipbuilding market.''
In less than two years, Newport News Shipbuilding has become the world market leader for mid-sized petroleum-product tankers with orders and letters of intent for its Double Eagle, double-hull design. It also has bids out to build fast frigates for the navies of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Other nations are interested in the shipyard's frigate design.
Tenneco's willingness to invest millions of dollars in the shipyard has helped it make inroads in the global marketplace, Phillips said.
``Many challenges remain for Newport News Shipbuilding,'' Phillips said. ``But I leave the company in November encouraged by the fact that we continue to win new business. And encouraged by a current backlog of orders, roughly $5 billion, that is the envy of every shipbuilder in the world.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Pat Phillips
by CNB