Sudhir K. Gupta (better known as S. K. Gupta) has been the Vice President of Operations for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (SSC) since 2001. SSC manufactures satellites and strategic missiles and provides nearly $8,000 million of Lockheed Martin’s $39,000 million of annual sales.
He was a member of the Management Council that received the United States Department of Defense’s 1997 SPI Award. For six months, he concurrently served as the Chief Design Engineer for the Missiles & Space Company.
In February 2004 S. K. was honored by the Chinese Institute of Engineers USA and received the Asian American Engineer of the Year Award. He received Lockheed Corporation’s Robert E. Gross Award as Engineer/Scientist of the Year. He has held technical and management assignments in engineering, business operations, business development, operations and program management on commercial, military and classified programs, including the stealth ship, Sea Shadow, featured in the James Bond movie – Tomorrow Never Dies. He was the Chief Systems Engineer, Director of Operations and Deputy Program Manager of the program till 1995. Prior to coming to the US, he served as chief engineer on merchant ships.
Mr. Gupta was elected to the Board of Directors of Sandia National Laboratories. S. K. is currently on the Board of Directors for Lean Advancement Initiative consortium. A member of the Industry Advisory Board of Tauber Institute for Global Operations, University of Michigan, he is also Lockheed Martin’s Co-University Executive for University of Michigan. S. K. was a member of Lockheed Martin Chairman’s Executive Diversity Council for three years and also serves on the Senior Advisory Board of LMC Properties, Inc. He is a member of San Jose Museum of Arts’ [1] Board of Trustees and a member of the Board of Directors of LEAP (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics)[2].
He graduated from the Marine Engineering & Research Institute in India, and also holds an engineering degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Seattle University. He has attended many executive courses at Kellogg’s, Columbia University and at Lockheed Martin. He has published and presented papers on leadership, business, and technical subjects at national and international levels. He is frequently solicited as a motivational speaker for minority professionals.
Gupta is married to Neeta. They have a daughter (Devina) and a son (Nitin).