Defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. announced today that, effective immediately, it has named four new vice presidents. Three are 20-plus-year veterans of the company, and three have not served as Northrop Grumman vice presidents before. John J. Buckley Jr., director of hardware engineering since 2006, has been named vice president of engineering and manufacturing for the central region of the company's Electronic Systems sector. Buckley joined the company in 1984; in 1998, he was named manager of mechanical design and data configuration. He became deputy program manager for the Agile Beam Radar program in 2002 and subsequently program director for the Internal FLIR Targeting System. He will be based at the Rolling Meadows, Ill., facility. Michael Hardesty is now vice president and CFO of the company's Enterprise Shared Services (ESS) organization and will lead the business management function of ESS and the company's financial service center in Irving, Texas. Hardesty, who joined Northrop Grumman in 2004, most recently served as director of finance for the FSC and assistant controller of the Integrated Systems sector. Before that, he was director of financial compliance and accounting research. Previously, Hardesty spent 10 years with Deloitte & Touche. Carl R. Smith has been named vice president of Infrared Countermeasures (IRCM) for the company's Defensive Systems Div. (DSD). He joined the company in 1984 and has held a number of leadership positions in engineering and program management, including manager of microwave power module systems engineering, engineering program manager for Falcon Edge, director of systems engineering and engineering program manager for all radio-frequency combat and information systems programs. He most recently served as vice president of engineering and manufacturing. Gordon R. Stewart has been appointed vice president of Laser Systems for Northrop Grumman's Land Forces Div. with responsibility for the company's Apopka site operations. Stewart will be located in Apopka and have executive responsibility for all laser systems programs within the company's new Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based Land Forces Div. Stewart joined the company in 1985 and has served as director of software engineering for DSD and director of DSD engineering. Since 2006, he has been director of technology and strategic development for DSD.