Apple's Board: Say Hello to Former Northrop Grumman CEO

The latest addition to Apple Inc.’s board of directors is a former CEO who brings deep engineering, financial and government expertise to the Apple party. His name: Ronald D. Sugar (pictured), the former chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman. Here’s the update.

Sugar fills an Apple board seat vacated when Jerry B. York died in early 2010. Sugar will oversee Apple’s audit and finance committee. But he’s more than a dollars and cents guy. Notes Apple CEO Steve Jobs: “Ron is an engineer at heart…We are very excited to welcome him.”

How does Sugar feel about Apple? “I have always had enormous admiration for the people of Apple.” Cute. So what are the implications? In addition to Sugar’s financial and technical expertise he also has a big Rolodex filled with government contacts from his days at Northrop Grumman. Translation: Sugar could be one heck of a resource as Apple tries to push deeper into the federal IT market.

Still, Sugar sounds like an engineer at hears. For anyone who doesn’t know, electrical engineering isn’t about wiring up your house. It deals with the innards of electronics, circuitry and more. I have a friend who just finished this major, and there isn’t anything he can’t hack by soldering a few points together. Don’t be surprised if you seem some interesting military-style industrial design plans making their way into Apple products.

Or not.

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