About this episode

Alan Lerchbacker discusses his experiences in shipbuilding and leadership, focusing on partnerships with major companies and Native American tribes.

Alan Lerchbacker has spent decades operating at the intersection of engineering, disciplined executive leadership and high-stakes growth. As the first CEO of a then-small US shipbuilding operation, he helped scale the company from a few dozen employees to over a thousand—work that placed him inside the complex realities of defense manufacturing, institutional partnerships and rapid organizational change. Now advising companies as a consultant, he brings a different perspective, one shaped as much by what did not go smoothly as by what did. In this interview, he reflects on the decisions, pressures and leadership shifts that defined that journey. (0:00) The value of listening and diversity (1:23) Adapting when variables are out of your control (2:58) Leading the Challenger recovery operation (7:38) Base realignment and the Long Beach Naval Shipyard (11:59) Launching Featherstone and partnering with native tribes (17:31) Teaming with giants like Boeing and General Dynamics (19:46) The emotional reality of mergers and acquisitions (24:22) Future-proofing through generational vision (26:00) Autonomous ships and the AI revolution in maritime strategy (39:12) Building a diverse…

People in this episode

Host: Bruce Piasecki

Guest: Alan Lerchbacker

Topics covered

• leadership
• defense manufacturing
• organizational change
• partnerships
• sustainability
• shipbuilding
• diversity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Boeing, General Dynamics, Featherstone

Places: Long Beach Naval Shipyard

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