Cobham is replacing Bob Murphy as chief executive, four months after the engineering group issued a profit warning and was forced to raise £500m from shareholders.
David Lockwood, chief executive of Laird, will take over from Murphy by the start of 2016.
Cobham, which supplies radar and other electronic products for industries including defence and aviation, said Murphy was leaving by the end of the year to pursue other opportunities after four years in charge.
The company warned in April that annual profit would be lower than expected. At the same time it launched a £500m rights issue, completed in June, to strengthen finances partly weakened by debt taken on to buy US communications equipment maker Aeroflex in 2014.
This month the company reported a 36% drop in first-half profit, leaving it needing a big improvement in performance to meet full-year targets.
The company’s performance was also affected by delayed shipments at its wireless communications business and lower demand from oil and mining customers for flying services in Australia.
Lockwood has run Laird, which makes wireless systems and materials to protect electronics from heat, for the past four years. Before that he was vice-president of global defence and security at BT Global Services and worked at other companies including the aerospace and defence groups BAE Systems and Thales.
John Devaney, Cobham’s chairman, said: “David has a background in defence and communications technology which are at the heart of Cobham. We look forward to him joining the company and thank Bob for his contribution.”
Lockwood will be paid a salary of £690,000 a year and will be eligible for bonuses at Cobham. Laird said Lockwood would leave on 5 September and would be replaced by Tony Quinlan, the company’s finance director.
Cobham shares, down 40% this year, rose 5% to 168p in early trading on Wednesday.
