SYRACUSE, NY, 06-MAR-03 -- Lockheed Martin next month will present Vic LaRosa, a software engineer at the company's Salina facility, with the Chairman's Award for Ethical Conduct at the company's senior executive meeting in Leesburg, Va. The award is given annually to one employee, who is chosen from among nominations from every Lockheed Martin site. The company has 125,000 employees. LaRosa has worked for Lockheed Martin for almost 15 years on submarine combat systems for the U.S. Navy. Award recipients, who are selected by the Chairman and CEO; and the President and COO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, must display extraordinary actions or behavior that exemplify the Lockheed Martin commitment to setting the standard for ethical business conduct and integrity. Honorees must demonstrate they have determination and tenacity in identifying, correcting, or resolving a complex ethics issue; contribute to the enhancement of the Corporation's image and reputation for ethical business conduct; or place the Lockheed Martin values and ethics principles above personal interest.

Last spring, LaRosa found himself in two potentially compromising positions. The first involved an e-mail attachment he never should have received. It contained proprietary Independent Research and Development (IR&D) information from a competitor. As soon as LaRosa saw it, he deleted the e-mail and notified his manager. The government official who sent it to LaRosa said it was a mistake. A few weeks later, he received another e-mail attachment requesting comments on a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) that was not yet made public. He knew he shouldn't see the RFP before anyone else because Lockheed Martin would have an unfair advantage. LaRosa immediately deleted the message and called it to the attention of his manager.

I was just doing my job, said LaRosa. People face many decisions in life and it's not always easy to make the right decision. My father always told me that you must do what's morally right even it it's not the easiest thing to do.

Vic's response to both of these incidents reinforced his commitment to doing the right thing above engaging in practices that would give Lockheed Martin an unfair advantage and help his personal goals, said LaRosa's manager, Karen Reilly, who nominated him.

This award recognizes Vic's efforts in supporting and demonstrating the highest standards of integrity and ethical business conduct at Lockheed Martin, said Mike Smith, president, NE&SS-Radar Systems. His professionalism and ethics represent the cornerstone of doing business at this company and we're proud that he has been honored at the corporate level.

LaRosa lives in Cicero with his wife and three children.

A leader in ground-based and airborne radar, surface vessel and submarine electronic warfare, anti-submarine warfare systems and sensors, minehunting systems and vessel traffic management, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems (NE&SS) in Syracuse serves customers including all branches of the U.S. armed forces, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Transportation and State, and defense and transportation departments of countries on six continents. NE&SS employs approximately 2,300 people at its Syracuse, N.Y., facility and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.