Sheila C. Cheston
Corporate Vice President and General Counsel
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Sheila C. Cheston is corporate vice president and general counsel for Northrop Grumman Corporation, a leader in global security. Cheston oversees all of Northrop Grumman’s legal matters.
Cheston joined Northrop Grumman from BAE Systems, Inc., where she was executive vice president responsible for strategy and planning, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and legal matters; she also served as a member of its board of directors. Previously, Cheston was a partner at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where she was chair of the firm’s International Aviation, Defense and Aerospace Group. She has held key leadership positions in the U.S. government, including general counsel of the United States Air Force, where she oversaw approximately 1,500 lawyers stationed worldwide, and special associate counsel to the President of the United States.
Cheston earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University School of Law. She is a commissioner of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. She is also a fellow of the American Bar and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Cheston serves on the Board of Directors for the National Partnership for Women and Families, the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, a member of the Board of Counselors of Equal Justice Works, and on the Board of Advisors for the National Military Family Association. She is the recipient of numerous national awards for leadership, for advancing diversity and inclusion, and for community service.
Northrop Grumman is a technology company, focused on global security and human discovery. Our pioneering solutions equip our customers with capabilities they need to connect, advance and protect the U.S. and its allies. Driven by a shared purpose to solve our customers’ toughest problems, our 95,000 employees define possible every day.