July 4, 2007 (LPAC)--The Italian defense manufacturer Finmeccanica has appointed Sir Kevin Tebbit as chairman of its United Kingdom subsidiary, Finmeccanica UK. From 1998 until 2005, Tebbit was Permanent Secretary to the British Ministry of Defense. In that post he was one of the top British officials responsible for overseeing the "Al-Yamamah" deal between BAE Systems and the Saudi Arabian government.

Sir Kevin is but the latest in a line of BAE-linked officials who have been brought in to run Finmeccanica's British subsidiary. The list includes Steve Mogford, a former BAE Systems executive who was hired in April 2007 to run Finmeccanica's Selex Sensors and Airbourne Systems unit. The chairman of that unit, Lord Bach, was the British Defense Procurement Minister, immediately following Baroness Liz Symons, who moved on to other key posts in the Tony Blair government, involving UK-Saudi relations. Up until March 2007, Selex Sensors had been a joint venture between BAE and Finmeccanica.