Serco hires new CEO for North American business

Serco Group has hired a new chief executive for its subsidiary in North America and is going outside the company for a successor this time.

Michael LaRouche will become CEO of Serco Inc. on Oct. 1 following three decades in the industry, the company said Monday. He is a former executive with Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Science Applications International Corp.

LaRouche will succeed Tom Watson, who has been CEO since 2022 and joined the company in 2018 as senior vice president of its defense business.

Serco Inc. is the North American branch of Serco Group plc, the U.K.-based government services company.

Watson has been a main architect of Serco Inc.'s multi-year strategy to move into higher-end technology services. The strategy has included several acquisitions, with the most recent being the $327 million purchase of Northrop Grumman’s training business.

“Each acquisition brought us something new, whether it was customer reach, technical capabilities, depth with a particular customer and they reshaped our portfolio,” Watson said in an interview earlier this year.

Serco Inc. has grown from about $900 million in annual revenue in 2017 to more than $2 billion currently. The North American business represented one-fourth of Serco Group's overall revenue in 2024, according to its annual report.

LaRouche brings to Serco Inc. a background in international business with experience working in the U.K., Middle East and Australia.

“Michael is a strategic leader and has deep experience in growing businesses, in the United States and internationally,” Serco Group CEO Anthony Kirby said in a release. “I look forward to Michael taking our North American business forward for the benefit of our customers, employees and shareholders at a time when the division has strong momentum.”