L3Harris Technologies removed chairman and chief executive Chris Kubasik, 65, over the weekend after a board investigation found he had violated the company's code of conduct. The $50 billion aerospace-and-technology company did not specify what Kubasik did, but stated the violation did not involve financial reporting, controls, customer relationships, or operations.
Kubasik resigned from the L3Harris board and all of its subsidiaries and affiliates. Under the separation agreement struck on Sunday, he leaves with no severance, no bonus, and no unvested equity. He forfeited two option grants and other awards that could have paid him $45 million in cash and equity — a figure that could have stretched to $62 million at maximum performance payout over the next two award cycles.
Despite the forfeitures, Kubasik walks away with options worth roughly $23 million in stock, plus more than 200,000 shares he already owns, valued at nearly $57 million. L3Harris paid him compensation valued at $66.3 million over the past three years, including $25.6 million in fiscal 2025. The board retains the right to claw back his remaining options if a court later establishes undisclosed misconduct — including fraud, sexual assault, embezzlement, quid pro quo sexual harassment, securities violations, or material regulatory violations.
The separation disclosure makes clear the board chose to negotiate Kubasik's exit rather than pursue a for-cause termination. Kubasik did not admit to any code violation, and the agreement expressly prohibits all parties from making public statements 'inconsistent' with Monday's disclosure.
The board named Sam Mehta, 53, as immediate replacement. Mehta had been leading L3Harris' space and mission systems and communications and spectrum dominance segments. Lewis Hay II, formerly lead independent director, becomes independent chairman.
This is not Kubasik's first forced exit from a major defense contractor. Fourteen years ago he left Lockheed Martin after an ethics investigation confirmed a 'close personal relationship' between him and a subordinate employee. At the time he had been appointed to take over as Lockheed CEO in 2013; weeks before assuming the role he was forced to resign and was replaced by Marillyn Hewson. Lockheed paid him $3.5 million in separation at that time.
During his tenure at L3Harris, the company maintained a close relationship with the Trump Administration's Department of War. In April, L3Harris subsidiary Aerojet Rocketdyne secured a $1 billion government investment into its missile-propulsion business, which L3Harris plans to take public. In June, L3Harris delivered a modified 747 — originally gifted by Qatar's royal family — to the White House to serve as an interim Air Force One.
L3Harris stock fell more than 4% on Monday. The company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance across revenue, growth, operating margin, and other metrics.
CEO Times take: The numbers here tell a story the boardroom rarely admits out loud. A defense contractor with $50 billion in market cap and deep ties to the federal government cannot afford the reputational drag of a CEO whose ethics record was already a known variable when he was hired. The board's decision to negotiate rather than fire for cause — leaving Kubasik with $80 million in hand — will raise legitimate questions about accountability at the top of the defense industrial base. Free enterprise demands that executives be rewarded for performance and penalized for misconduct; a golden parachute measured in the tens of millions, even a reduced one, tests that principle. The market voted with a 4% drop. Capital, as always, reads the fine print faster than the press release.
