Utah Business proudly presents this year’s cohort of our Leaders of the Year award. These 12 honorees represent the greatest accomplishments of Utah’s business community in 2024 and were selected by the Utah Business editorial team.
Wendy Williams
VP & General Manager, Launch & Missile Defense Systems | Northrop Grumman
When Artemis 1 launched successfully on its third attempt in 2022 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, it did so with enough force and spectacle to light up the night sky — and it set off a lot of nearby car alarms.
Wendy Williams wasn’t just there to see it; she was instrumental in facilitating the large rocket boosters that housed the 2.8 million pounds of propellant it used for spaceflight.
As exciting and nerve-wracking as that was, Williams considered it a highlight of her career — a career marked by many transmundane achievements. In February 2024, Northrop Grumman completed the first Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) segment for the Space Launch System’s new solid rocket boosters, enhancing payload capacity for Moon and Mars missions by nearly five metric tons. Williams and her team also designed, developed and produced the Gem 63XL, a solid rocket booster used to power and launch the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket in early 2024.
Williams leads a team of 8,000 employees across six states and is responsible for solid rocket motors and launch vehicles supporting human space flight, space exploration, cargo provided to the ISS (International Space Station) and missiles helping protect this country and its warfighters.
The company’s demand for solid rocket motors is more than doubling between now and 2030. Preparing for this increase has required a massive facility expansion of over $600 million in recent years and over $1 billion over the past six years.
Because the motors are 72 feet long and 63 inches wide, Northrop Grumman had to dig casting pits that were 80-90 feet deep, hitting bedrock.
“We had to move a literal mountain,” Williams says, a total of 2.3 million tons of dirt.
These motors support diverse missions, including Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a constellation of 3,000+ satellites in low Earth orbit allowing underserved communities around the world access to the internet.
After Williams began her career at Northrop Grumman in aerospace and defense, it didn’t take long for her to develop a passion for all the company supports. Their mission includes space exploration and supporting astronauts and space application through satellites, as well as defending the country’s warfighters.
“I raised three daughters as a single mom. As they considered their careers, I told them to choose one they were passionate about, one they could be good at,” Williams says. “Everything else takes care of itself. It’s the same advice I give to the employees I mentor. We have a big advantage in our ability to provide that.”
Williams recounts one instance where one of her colleagues was watching a launch with his daughter. After explaining to her that his team created the rocket motors and launch vehicle, the young girl exclaimed, “So your fingerprints are in space?”
“Whether it’s procurement or finance, our employees are making such a difference,” Williams continues. “Their fingerprints literally are in space. That’s something to be proud of: defining what is possible.”