NEWPORT NEWS, Va., June 4, 1998 – Newport News Shipbuilding (NYSE:NNS) recently appointed William A. ‘Doc’ Syers to the position of Director for Federal Relations in the company’s Government Relations office in Washington D.C.

Syers’ most recent position before joining Newport News Shipbuilding was as a defense appropriations lobbyist for Hughes Electronics.

He holds graduate degrees from the University of Denver and the University of Oklahoma. He served as a Carl Albert Congressional Fellow, and came to Washington D. C. in 1984. For the next 11 years he worked for Republicans in the House of Representatives. He served first with the minority leadership staff of former Republican conference Chairman and Bush Administration Defense Secretary Dick Cheney of Wyoming. The bulk of his congressional staff career was spent with Congressman Jerry Lewis of California on the defense and VA-HUD subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee.

Newport News Shipbuilding is America’s premier shipbuilding company with annual revenues of approximately $1.7 billion and 18,000 employees. The company is the leader in the design and construction of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the U. S. Navy.