Stuart Bradie, the newly named CEO of Houston-based KBR Inc., faces a series of lawsuits, a congressional probe into alleged whistle-blower silencing, reduced defense spending and stiff competition in the North American liquified-natural-gas building market it was once set to dominate.
A former top executive at Australian engineer WorleyParsons, Bradie takes over on June 2. He succeeds the now retired William Utt, who was CEO since 2006. CFO Brian Ferraioli, hired last fall from Shaw Group Inc., is interim CEO.