About
Walt Havenstein graduated from the US Naval Academy with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. He served 28 years in the Marine Corps – 12 years on active duty – leading and serving along side America’s finest young men and women. He retired from the Marine Reserves in 1999 at the rank of Colonel.
A leader
Over the years, Walt has been a leader in the private and non-profit sectors, and in philanthropy, having taken a strong interest in the success of our nation’s youth. He has served as Chair and Vice Chair of FIRST, a Manchester-based non-profit established to inspire young people to be leaders in science and technology, and to promote STEM education in our country. Walt has been the Vice Chair of the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund, providing higher education opportunities to the children of Marines. And, for more than 20 years, Walt and his wife, Judy, have been very involved supporting the Juveniles Diabetes Research Foundation, advocating for and funding research to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Business
As a business leader, Walt spent 30 years in the private sector working with some of the most sophisticated companies in the world. He has been CEO for two companies, including BAE Systems, Inc., one of the state’s largest employers with nearly 4,000 employees in Nashua and southern New Hampshire, and with 37,000 employees across the United States. At BAE, Walt was responsible for managing a budget nearly 3 times the size of New Hampshire’s annual budget. Walt also served as CEO of SAIC, an $11 billion, FORTUNE 250 scientific, engineering, and technology company.
Walt’s experience as a business executive makes him uniquely qualified to lead and manage large, complex organizations, and to know how to control costs, improve performance, create opportunity, and build lasting partnerships.
Family
Having first met in junior high school, Walt has been married to his wife, Judy, for 42 years. They have a son and two granddaughters, ages 5 and 3.
Walt and Judy moved to New Hampshire in 1999, and since that time they have been active in many civic and non-profit organizations. Together their lives have been marked by service to others. They are dedicated Republicans, committed to the principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, and personal responsibility, and they have been active in New Hampshire politics and on behalf of Republicans candidates for many years