Mike Petters

Mike Petters is executive vice chairman of the board of directors at HII, a global engineering and defense technologies provider.

Petters previously served as HII’s president and CEO until March 1, 2022. As executive vice chairman, Petters supports the leadership transition, consistent with the company’s succession plan, and will remain an HII employee through 2022.

Previously, Petters served as president of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and as president of Northrop Grumman’s Newport News sector. He joined Newport News Shipbuilding in 1987 in the Los Angeles-class submarine construction division. He held a number of increasingly responsible positions throughout the organization, including production supervisor for submarines, marketing manager for submarines and carriers, vice president of aircraft carrier programs, vice president of contracts and pricing, and vice president of human resources.

A native of Florida, Petters earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982, served aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS George Bancroft (SSBN 643) and spent five years in the U.S. Naval Reserve. In 1993, he earned an MBA from the College of William and Mary.

Petters is a past chairman and current member of the Virginia Business Council as well as vice chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association’s Board of Governors. He serves on the board of directors for the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation and the National Association of Manufacturers. He also serves on the board of advisors for the Center for a New American Security, the board of trustees of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation and the distinguished advisory board for the Dolphin Scholarship Foundation.

In 2017, Petters received the Committee for Economic Development’s Owen B. Butler Education Excellence Award, which recognizes an individual’s exceptional commitment to quality education, skills development and workforce development programs.