Technology >> CEO Interviews >> January 7, 2002

Alfred Hansen – Ems Technologies Inc (elmg)

ALFRED G. HANSEN is President and Chief Executive Officer of EMS Technologies, Inc. Appointed as CEO in January 2001, Mr. Hansen provides both strategic direction and operational management for EMS' operations in Canada and the United States, which involve almost 2,000 employees and revenues of $300 million. Mr. Hansen also is a member of the EMS Board of Directors, a position he has held since April 1999. Prior to being named CEO, he was EMS' President and Chief Operating Officer, a position he held from January 2000. During that period, Mr. Hansen improved EMS' processes and performance in key company areas ranging from manufacturing and customer service to sales and internal R&D. In 2000, EMS was rewarded for these efforts with record orders and strong profitability that exceeded the previous year's results, with more than a third of the record Space & Technology backlog relating to development of the company's broadband capabilities. Prior to joining EMS, Mr. Hansen served as President of A.G. Hansen Associates, Inc., an aerospace marketing and manufacturing consultancy in Marietta, Georgia., with clients in the United States and around the world. Prior to establishing his own firm, he was Corporate Vice President of Lockheed Martin and Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems from 1995 until 1998. In 1989, after a 37-year career, he retired from the U.S. Air Force as a Four-Star General. In his last assignment, he served as Commander of the Air Force Logistics Command (USAF), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. He was responsible for providing the logistics resources necessary to keep USAF units around the world in a state of readiness. Under Mr. Hansen's command were five logistics centers and 12 specialized centers with more than 100,000 people. Mr. Hansen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Troy State University in Alabama and completed graduate programs at the Air Command and Staff College and Air War College. Mr. Hansen has received the Secretary of the Air Force Eugene Zuckert Award for exceptional management in his organization, and the Presidential Quality Award, the equivalent of the Malcolm Baldrige Award in the federal sector. He currently serves on the Board for Southern Poly Technical State University, the Junior Achievement Board, as Chairman of the Arnold Air Society for the USAF Reserve Officer Training Corps.program in 163 US universities and colleges, and as a Board member of the Falcon Foundation of the United States Air Force Academy. Profile
TWST: Could you give us a brief historical sketch and overview of the

company?

Mr. Hansen: EMS was founded in 1968 and grew out of a strong engineering

group of people, who established quite a