University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering

Linda A. Mills

[title]
To Linda A. Mills, for outstanding leadership and management in providing critical, large-scale information technology services to military, government, and corporate clients.

Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman Information Systems, Reston, Virginia

  • BS, 1971, Mathematics, Santa Clara University
  • MS, 1973, Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In her 30-year career, Linda A. Mills has worked her way from the bottom up to become one of the top female executives in the nation. In her current position as president of Northrop Grumman Information Systems, she is responsible for a business unit that generates $10 billion in revenue annually, provides jobs for 35,000 employees, and maintains offices in 50 states and 18 countries.

Under her leadership, Northrop Grumman has established itself as a leader in IT areas critical to the nation and the industry, such as cyber security. In July 2009, Northrop Grumman opened a new Cyber Security Operations Center, a comprehensive cyber threat detection and response center to protect its networks and pass lessons learned to its customers. Northrop Grumman also plays a leading role in protecting the global information grid, managing three of the five top-level Department of Defense emergency response teams. The company has contracted with DARPA to develop the National Cyber Range, an environment to test and analyze new concepts and technologies for countering cyber threats.

Mills has been recognized several times for leadership. She won the Northrop Grumman CEO Leadership award three times (2000, 2001, and 2005). She was named to Profiles in Diversity Journal’s list of Women Worth Watching in 2007. In addition, she was recognized by severalWashington, DC–area groups, including selection as one of the Top 20 People toWatch in 2009 by ExecutiveBiz Magazine,Washington’s Top 100 Tech Titans by Washingtonian Magazine, and, most recently, the 2009 Woman of the Year by Learning for Life and the Boy Scouts of America National Capital Area Council.

Current as of 2010.