Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Mr. O’Brien served as Executive Chairman at Enterasys Networks from 2003 until his retirement in 2006. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Enterasys from 2002 to 2004. Prior to working at Enterasys, he worked for 33 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he held several different senior management positions in auditing and professional services including serving as global managing partner of PwC. Mr. O’Brien joined the Mercury Board in 2008.

Financial Expert
Independent Director
Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee
Member of the Audit Committee
Member of the M&A and Finance Committee

President and Chief Executive Officer

Mark Aslett is Mercury's President and Chief Executive Officer, and has been a member of its Board of Directors since 2007. He brings in-depth experience that spans the technology industry, across a variety of markets that include telecommunications, data networking, security, defense, and life sciences. Within these areas, Mr. Aslett has held strategic-level positions in or has been responsible for engineering, operations, marketing, business development, portfolio management, and general executive management.

Prior to joining Mercury, Mr. Aslett was President and Chief Executive Officer of Enterasys, and held various positions with Marconi plc and its affiliated companies, including Executive Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of Portfolio Management for Marconi Capital, and President of Marconi Communications - North America. Mr. Aslett has also held positions at GEC Plessey Telecommunications, and other telecommunications-related technology firms. He started his career at British Telecommunications plc as a software engineer.

A native of the United Kingdom and a naturalized United States citizen, Mr. Aslett has an extensive background in global business. Mr. Aslett has a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and a First Honors bachelor’s degree in digital systems engineering.

Member of the Government Relations Committee

Former CEO, Blackboard, Inc. and SRA International, Inc.

Mr. Ballhaus currently serves as Chairman of MilestoneRoad Partners, a business consulting firm he founded in 2021 and as Executive Chairman at Government Brands LLC, a provider of software and payments solutions for government customers. He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blackboard, Inc., a leading EdTech company, from 2016 until its merger with Anthology in 2021. Prior to that, he served as Chief Executive Officer and President of SRA International, Inc., a provider of information technology services from 2011 until the creation of CSRA from SRA and CSC’s U.S. public sector business.  Before that, Mr. Ballhaus served as Chief Executive Officer and President of private military contractor DynCorp International from 2008 to 2010. Mr. Ballhaus has also held senior leadership positions at BAE Systems, Boeing and Hughes where he led global government and commercial technology businesses particularly focused on software and IT.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Qmulos, a leading cybersecurity and IT compliance company, and as a senior advisor at PSG, a private equity firm focused on the software industry. He is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Mr. Ballhaus joined the Mercury Board in 2022.

Independent Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Member of the M&A and Finance Committee
Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee

Former Executive Vice President, Aeronautics, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Mr. Carvalho has over 38 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry with Lockheed Martin. Before his retirement from Lockheed Martin in 2018, he was Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin’s Aeronautics business, a 24,000-employee enterprise. Mr. Carvalho held several integral leadership positions with Lockheed Martin, including Executive Vice President and General Manager of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program, President of Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors, and General Manager and Vice President of Surface-Sea Based Ballistic Missile Defense Systems. Mr. Carvalho presently serves on the Board of Advisors for the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business and he is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He joined the Mercury Board in 2020.

Independent Director
Member of the Human Capital and Compensation Committee
Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee
Chair of the M&A and Finance Committee

Under Secretary of the U.S. Air Force (Ret.)

Ms. Disbrow retired as the U.S. Senate-confirmed Under Secretary of the Air Force in 2017, responsible for the affairs of the Air Force, including organizing, training, equipping and providing for the welfare of approximately 660,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen worldwide. She oversaw the Air Force’s annual budget of over $132 billion and directed strategy and policy development, risk management, weapons requirements and acquisition, technology investments, and human resource management across a global enterprise. Ms. Disbrow served as the Acting Secretary of the Air Force from January through May 2017. In 2014, Ms. Disbrow was confirmed by the Senate as the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller, the principal senior official on all financial matters, with a financial workforce of 10,000 personnel world-wide. She served in multiple senior positions on the Joint Staff and on the National Security Council at the White House. Ms. Disbrow was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 1985 and retired in 2008 as a Colonel with over 23 years of total active and reserve service. In addition to her role at Mercury, she serves on the Board of Directors of Perspecta, Inc. and Blackberry Limited. She joined the Mercury Board in 2017.
 
Financial Expert
Independent Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Member of the Human Capital and Compensation Committee
Chair of the Government Relations Committee

Former Executive, Dell and EMC

Ms. Krakauer retired as Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer of Dell Corporation in 2017, where she was responsible for global IT. She served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer of EMC Corporation in 2016. Prior to that she served as EVP, Business Development, Global Enterprise Services for EMC Corporation during 2015. From 2012 to 2015 she was Executive Vice President, Global Human Resources for EMC Corporation, responsible for developing and executing a talent strategy in support of the business strategy, including executive and employee recruitment and development, compensation and benefits, acquisition integration and succession planning. Previously, she led large businesses as COO, Technology Services & Solutions and Managed Services at EMC Corporation, and VP/General Manager of multiple services businesses at Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation. She has been a director of Xilinx Inc., a publicly traded adaptive and intelligent computing company, since 2017 and DXC Technology Co., a publicly traded IT services company, since 2018. Ms. Krakauer joined the Mercury Board in 2017.

Independent Director
Member of the Government Relations Committee
Chair of the Human Capital and Compensation Committee

Former President and CEO, Maxar Technologies, Inc. and Harris Corporation

Mr. Lance is currently Managing Partner at Lance Advisors LLC, an advisory firm serving private equity and institutional investors. He serves as non-executive Chairman of Summit Materials, a leading provider of aggregates and cement, and as non-executive Chairman of Change Healthcare, a leading provider of healthcare information technology and services. He also serves as a Director of New Vista Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC focused on emerging technologies in aerospace, defense and logistics, and as non-executive Chairman of privately-held Covanta Energy LLC, a leading provider of sustainable environmental solutions. He previously served on the public-company boards of Ferrovial S.A., Eastman Chemical Company, Stryker Corporation, and Aviat Networks.

Mr. Lance was President and Chief Executive Officer of Maxar Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of space technology solutions from 2016 to 2019. Previously, he was Executive Advisor – Private Equity at the Blackstone Group from 2012 to 2016. He served as Chairman, President and CEO of Harris Corporation (now L3Harris) from 2003 to 2012. He was Co-President of NCR Corporation and COO of its Retail and Financial Group from 2001 to 2002. Previously, he spent 17 years at Emerson Electric Company including as Executive Vice President of its Electronics and Telecom businesses, Group President of its Climate Technologies businesses, and Chief Executive Officer of Astec PLC, a UK-listed subsidiary based in Hong Kong. Mr. Lance joined the Mercury Board in 2022.

Independent Director
Member of the Government Relations Committee
Member of the Human Capital and Compensation Committee
Member of the M&A and Finance Committee
Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee

Former Managing Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Mr. Nearhos is a Retired Partner at PwC with over 35 years of experience providing assurance, business advisory and other services to clients across multiple industries, including technology, life sciences, telecom and manufacturing. Before his retirement from PwC in June 2015, Mr. Nearhos was responsible for directing the strategy and operations of the firm’s Boston, Hartford and Albany offices. During his tenure, he also served as the leader of PwC’s Northeast Assurance practice, a position he held from 2005 until 2008, and as a partner in PwC’s Assurance practice from 1989 to 2005. He was a director of Virtusa Corporation, a publicly-traded IT services and outsourcing company, from 2016 until its acquisition by private equity in 2021.

Financial Expert
Independent Director
Chair of the Audit Committee
Member of the Nominating and Governance Committee
Member of the M&A and Finance Committee

Federal Senior Executive (Retired), National Security Agency

Debora Plunkett is a cybersecurity leader with over 30 years of experience leading large, complex organizations. A former Director of Information Assurance at the National Security Agency, she is currently Principal of Plunkett Associates LLC, a consulting business. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center and an Adjunct Professor of Cybersecurity at the University of Maryland. Ms. Plunkett served as the first Senior Advisor to the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) for Equality where she led efforts to develop and deliver solutions to improve equality, inclusion and diversity for the highly technical NSA workforce. She also served as Director on the National Security Council at the White House in the Administrations of Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush where she contributed to the development of national cybersecurity policies and programs.

Ms. Plunkett serves on the corporate boards of CACI International, Nationwide Insurance and BlueVoyant, and is a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Defending Digital Campaigns, a non-profit entity focused on providing free or low-cost cybersecurity services to federal election campaigns. Ms. Plunkett also serves on the New York State Cybersecurity Advisory Board and on the Board of Visitors of Towson University.

Independent Director
Member of the Audit Committee
Member of the Government Relations Committee
Member of the Human Capital and Compensation Committee