THE outgoing chief executive of BAE Systems, Mike Turner, is to make a return to Babcock International, the support-services group, but this time as chairman.

Turner sat on the Babcock board in the late 1990s but left to concentrate on his career at BAE. Now he is in negotiations to take over as chairman when Gordon Campbell stands down later this year after eight years.

Turner will initially join as a non-executive director before taking control of a company whose market value has risen to £1.4 billion following a remarkable turnround led by Campbell and chief executive Peter Rogers. Confirmation of Turner’s appointment could be made alongside a strong set of results that Babcock is due to announce this week.

BAE may also be close to announcing Turner’s successor. The frontrunner is believed to be Chris Kubasik, the highly regarded finance director at Lockheed Martin. His appointment would signal the growing importance of BAE’s business in America – it now has more sales there than in Britain – and also the determination of Dick Olver, BAE’s chairman, to make a break with the company’s past.

BAE has only ever had British chief executives – because of the government’s golden share in the company its articles of association state that nonBritish nationals cannot hold the post. The Sunday Times revealed earlier this year that the company was in talks with the government about relaxing the restrictions.

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