Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the U.S. shipbuilding subsidiary of Italian shipbuilding group Fincantieri, announced that it has appointed former U.S. ambassador to Norway and the 77th Secretary of the Navy, Kenneth J. Braithwaite, as Chairman of their Board of Directors.
Braithwaite brings a distinguished career in defense and public service to the role, as well as deep Navy ties. He is a 1984 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. His active naval service included time as a naval aviator flying anti-submarine missions in the Pacific and Arctic, and later as a public affairs officer on USS America, where he participated in NATO and Mediterranean-Indian Ocean deployments. He left active duty in 1993 but continued serving in the Navy Reserve until retiring as a Rear Admiral. Highlights of his reserve service include deploying for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, serving as the first commander of the Joint Public Affairs Support Element – Reserve, and deploying to Pakistan for disaster assistance after the 2005 earthquake.
Braithwaite’s private sector career began with an executive role at Atlantic Richfield (ARCO). He transitioned to public service as a senior advisor and state director for U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) in 1997. Subsequently, he held key leadership positions in the healthcare industry, including Vice President roles at Ascension Health (St. Thomas Health Services) and serving as executive director of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council. Before becoming Ambassador to Norway, he was a Group Senior Vice President at Vizient, Inc., a national hospital performance improvement company he helped create through a merger.
He was sworn in as the 77th Secretary of the Navy on May 29, 2020, following his service as the 31st U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway, during President Trump’s first administration.
Braithwaite joins fellow FMM board members, former Wisconsin governor James Doyle and Vice Adm. (USN, Ret.) Ronald Boxall, as well as former secretary-level military acquisitions principals Steffanie Easter and James Geurts, all as outside directors.
FMM is the most modern and advanced government construction shipyard in the United States. It is the main component of Fincantieri’s “System of Shipyards” in Wisconsin, where technologies and innovation from Italian parent, Fincantieri, are integrated and refined to support the growing U.S. maritime sector.
Notably, this appointment comes at a time of significant transformation for Fincantieri’s U.S. operations.
On November 25, 2025, the U.S. Navy announced that it would terminate the order for four follow-up ships in the problematic Constellation-class frigate program that had not yet started construction, retaining only the two frigates already under construction—the USS Constellation and the USS Congress. The delivery date for the first ship, the USS Constellation, has now been postponed to April 2029, a delay of 36 months from the original date of April 2026, and the project faces serious schedule challenges.
According to the conclusion reached by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the key reason the Constellation-class frigate program could not proceed was “designing while building,” a common problem plaguing U.S. defense shipbuilding projects.
The reduction in this frigate project order represents the latest move in a series of adjustments to U.S. federal shipbuilding programs under the Trump administration. This follows the cancellation of the 11th Legend-class patrol ship planned for the U.S. Coast Guard, which had been ordered in December 2018 at a cost of approximately $462 million. Additionally, construction of four offshore patrol vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard by the Eastern Shipbuilding Group has been entirely halted.
Currently, Fincantieri operates four shipyards in the United States through its subsidiary Fincantieri Marinette Marine—Marinette, Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay, and Jacksonville. Over the past several years, the company has invested more than $800 million in these facilities, which now employ a total workforce of approximately 3,750 people.
Due to order cancellations stemming from recent events, Fincantieri Marinette Marine has announced a workforce reduction plan to eliminate 92 positions. The company attributes this action to “the termination of the Constellation-class frigate program and a significant downsizing of its operations.”