LINDA HUDSON: A PIONEERING DEFENSE-INDUSTRY LEADER USES HER LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCE TO GUIDE SENIOR EXECUTIVES THROUGH MAJOR DECISIONS.

AuthorInfanzon, Vanessa
PositionPillars of North Carolina

Linda Hudson refuses to be a tech dinosaur. The CEO of The Cardea Group in Charlotte wants to be the first one with the newest gadgets--and she's used to being first. A 2007 profile in London's The Sunday Times called her the First Lady of Defense, citing her career breaking glass ceilings in leadership, engineering, operations and production roles at various military contractors.

Hudson gained notice in North Carolina in 2002 after moving the headquarters of General Dynamics' Armament and Technical Products unit to Charlotte from Burlington, Vt. Four years later, she joined BAE Systems, the U.S. subsidiary of Europe's biggest defense company, as head of its Land and Armaments division. In 2009, she was named CEO of BAE's entire U.S. business, a post she held until retiring in 2014Since leaving BAE, she has coached CEOs and other senior executives through corporate and individual transitions and served as a director at Charlotte-based Bank of America and Ingersoll Rand, an Ireland-based company with North American headquarters in Davidson.

Her long list of plaudits include rankings in Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, Washingtonian magazine's 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington and recognition as 2011 Woman of the Year Distinguished Service Award by the United Service Organizations, which aids active-duty service members.

Hudson, 69, grew up in Leesburg, Fla., and graduated with a systems engineering degree from the University of Florida, where she is on the boards of the foundation and engineering college. The die-hard college football fan has 12 season tickets to Gator games. She shared her experiences in comments edited for length and clarity.

I was the first girl in my high school to ever take engineering drawing. That was my first foray into doing something that a girl in those days had not done. I just so desperately wanted to he an engineer, [and] the only way to accomplish that was to jump in with the guys, if you will. I had to find a way of driving myself, because I never had the opportunity to know a woman that was in a higher position than I was in.

I refused to be a victim. When things would get tough, I would just remind myself that being a victim never [has] a successful outcome and turn that frustration into determination [that I would] just go back and prove them wrong.

When you're different, people are watching. They're watching you much more closely, and if you trip up or you make a mistake, it gets...

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