Carl Kotchian

Archibald Carlisle Kotchian (July 17, 1914 – December 14, 2008), known as Carl or A.C., was an American business executive who served as the president of Lockheed Corporation. His admission of paying millions of dollars in bribes to foreign government officials led to the jailing of Japan's prime minister and political upheaval in several countries in the 1970s.

Kotchian was born on July 17, 1914, in Kermit, Divide County, North Dakota, and grew up in Long Beach, California, attending Long Beach Junior College (now known as Long Beach City College). He later attended Stanford University, where he received an undergraduate degree and a Master of Business Administration.

Kotchian, a Certified Public Accountant, worked for Price Waterhouse in Los Angeles. He was hired in 1941 by Vega Airplane Company, a subsidiary of Lockheed Aircraft. At Lockheed, he supervised the firm's surge in aircraft production during World War II. He established the firm's manufacturing site in Marietta, Georgia, which became the primary production location for the C-130 Hercules cargo plane and later for the F-22 Raptor fighter. He became president of Lockheed in 1967, a period in which the firm produced the C-5 Galaxy cargo plane and the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane for the U.S. military and the L-1011 TriStar jet for the commercial market.

A resident of Palo Alto, California, Kotchian died at age 94 on December 14, 2008. He had been married to the former Lucy Elizabeth Carr who had died in 2002.