Rick Spaulding is a retired ship builder with over 39 years of ship design, planning and construction experience. Prior to his retirement, Rick was vice president of Business Process Standardization for Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. Named to this position in 2019, Spaulding was responsible for the standardization and implementation of program and production standards across the company, acceleration of digital shipbuilding, Industrial Engineering, and other key business functions. During his tenure at Newport News Shipbuilding, Rick led efforts to share best practices across all HII business units. He began his shipbuilding career in 1983 as a manufacturing supervisor in the steel fabrication division at NNS and then held positions of increasing responsibility including planning manager on the SEAWOLF-Class Submarine Program, construction superintendent in repair and new construction, and director of central planning, where he was responsible for planning, scheduling, and production control activities for all programs. In 2008, he was promoted to vice president of Central Planning and Process Excellence at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi, where he served until being named to his role at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2019. In this role, he was responsible for all planning, scheduling and production control, and process improvement efforts at Ingalls. Spaulding earned a bachelor’s degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1983. He served as chair of the Ship Production committee of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and was a member of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) Executive Control Board for 15 years. Rick is currently a member of the University of Michigan Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Advisory Board and is President of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. Rick Spaulding currently resides with his wife Karen in Hampton Virginia.