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NEWS | Feb. 8, 2022

Brad Crosby Becomes Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Executive Director

By Troy Miller, Public Affairs Specialist Norfolk Naval Shipyard

With every new job comes new challenges and new learning curves and depending on one’s background, the challenges could become overwhelming and the learning curves could be steep. Although some might shy away such opportunities, others welcome it with open arms and enthusiasm. This is such the case with Brad Crosby who recently became Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Executive Director (Code 1100).

                “I love to learn and I love to challenge myself,” said Crosby. “Becoming the executive director for the shipyard allows me to do just that.”

Although Crosby was born in Aiken, SC, he was raised up and down the East Coast with his father working for DuPont as a chemical engineer. Taking after his father, Crosby graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and eventually earning his Master of Business Administration  degree from Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

He started his career at Qimonda Richmond, LLC, a semiconductor memory company, in 2001. When the company closed in 2009, Crosby chose to go into the civil service arena by working in the contracting department for Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). By 2015, he was ready for some new challenges and opportunities to expand his knowledge and Norfolk Naval Shipyard offered him that opportunity to do so.

Crosby joined Norfolk Naval Shipyard as the Chief of the Contracting Office, Code 400, a position he assumed in July 2015 along with the responsibility to standup NNSY’s Contracting Department and responsible for bringing all contracted services and nuclear cognizant material necessary to meet the shipyard’s assigned mission under one roof.

“After executing Code 400’s first contract action in July 2016, Brad and the Code 400 team have grown our Contracting Department into a world-class contracting office and have awarded and overseen the execution of over 8,000 contract actions valued at over $2.7 billion,” said Shipyard Commander, Capt. Dianna Wolfson.

When the shipyard’s executive director’s position opened up, Crosby seized the moment to take on new responsibilities and to see the shipyard through a different perspective. “Code 400 was all about contracting in one form or another,” said Crosby. “Code 1100 is richly diverse in what we provide to the shipyard from security to photography and graphics, to diversity and inclusion to public affairs to business administration to emergency management to training and development. There isn’t nearly as much overlap between these codes in 1100, like the codes in 400. This is one reason I am looking forward to this position.”

The workplace isn’t the only place Crosby pushes himself outside his comfort zone. He strives past what he feels his limits are off yard as well. “One of the most mentally and physically times I challenged myself is when I ran a marathon in 2 hours, 59 minutes and 49 seconds. That’s 6 minute 52 seconds per mile pace. And though it was tough, it made me all the more stronger both physically and mentally.”

Crosby is going into his new position with the same mindset that he had going into the eight marathons he had ran. “Regardless how long your stride is, each time you take a step, that brings you that much closer to your goal. The object is to keep moving forward and hold nothing back. I see people do that here now and I will be no different. The time is now to show our Navy, our Nation, and the world why we are America’s Shipyard.”