SINGAPORE - Growing up, Ms Marillyn Hewson had fun playing with Barbie dolls but it was military planes that excited her.
Maybe it was because her father was in the army and her mother a nurse during World War II.
Whatever the reasons, Ms Hew-son ended up looking for work as an industrial engineer at a factory in Georgia, America.
She did more than just ace the job interview at Lockheed Martin. More than 30 years later, she is chairman, president and chief executive officer of what has become one of the world's biggest aerospace, defence and security firms.
Speaking to The Sunday Times on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, which closed last Sunday, she recalls that day in 1983.
"They took me out on the factory floor and I saw C-130s running down the line," she says. "I just was very excited."
Ms Hewson did well for a rookie, making it to supervisor within a year-and-a-half. She was the only woman to hit the rank then.
After that, there was no looking back for the self-professed workaholic.
In January 2012, she was named president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, and a year later, chairman.
In the last four years she has made Fortune magazine's list of the 50 most powerful women in business, rising to fourth spot last year. She is one of fewer than 20 women to head a Fortune 500 firm - an annual list of the 500 largest industrial corporations in the United States. Of the lot, no more than four or five run a defence and aerospace outfit.
Looking relaxed in a bright blue jacket and an attractive short hairdo at Shangri-La's Horizon Club, the 60-year old declares she has never let her gender stand in the way of her goals.
"When you come into a role and you're the only woman in the room, which was often the case for me, it was important being different to make sure that I established my credibility," she says.
"After that, I don't think gender was an issue."
Did the men whose toes she stepped on along the way pass unkind remarks? "Oh sure," is her quick answer, but she refuses to be drawn into telling more.
Yet after some thought, she adds: "When you think about it, was that because I was a woman or because I was competing for the next job? There's always professional jealousy that occurs if you win the promotion and the next person, man or woman, does not."
"If you're a young woman out on a manufacturing shop floor with predominantly men, that (the remarks) might be seen as complimentary as opposed to mean," she quips cheekily.
On a more serious note, she stresses that there is no substitute for hard work.
"Did I work hard? Yes. That's kind of who I am. I have a passion for work and the drive to do the best I can every day. My parents were both very hardworking people who instilled strong work ethics in their kids," says Ms Hewson, who has two older brothers and two younger sisters.
Thankfully, the journey to the top has not been at the expense of a fulfilling family life, says the mother of two boys, 21 and 25. Her husband, whom she says she rang earlier that morning for a quick chat, deserves much credit for that.
"Every family has to determine what works," she says. "In our case, we said 'why don't you - my husband - try staying at home to be the at-home parent'?"
"So he started a business from home because I was going to be travelling a lot and we never really changed that model.
"I wanted to be a good mother, a good leader, a good wife. It's a challenge to figure out how you balance all that but I'm just very fortunate that I have such a supportive family."
As busy as she was working her way up to the top post in a multibillion-dollar firm that makes some of the world's most advanced military aircraft including the F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, she says she did not miss out on the things that were important - "like being with the children during sports and other school events".
Now that she is at the top, work is set to become even tougher.
Hit by defence spending cuts by its biggest customer, the United States government, and the impact of the US military's drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lockheed Martin has laid off thousands of workers in the last few years.
From 146,000 staff in 2009, the firm is now down to 113,000.
To reduce its reliance on domestic business, which now accounts for more than 80 per cent of sales, Lockheed Martin is pushing for global growth with a focus on the Asia-Pacific and Middle East.
Says Ms Hewson: "If you look at this region in terms of the predominance of the population here, the economic growth, the budgets that countries have to spend on protecting their citizens and the other services that they need to provide... it's a growth area for us.
"The Middle East likewise has its global security tensions and things that they have to address. They are different regions but they are both important for us."
Singapore's billion-dollar plan to upgrade its F-16 fleet - the Republic of Singapore Air Force's largest and most ambitious upgrade in its 45-year history - is a contract Lockheed Martin hopes to bag.
Up against British rival BAE Systems, Ms Hewson says: "We certainly want to win it (the contract) and we put our best foot forward so we will see what happens."
As fiercely ambitious and driven as she is, Ms Hewson says work is but one part of her life. She wraps up the half-hour chat - all the time she had to spare - saying: "If you put all of your self-esteem into the job and something happens on the job, then where are you? You need the full support system of your family and friends... That's something I myself have always focused on over the years."
This article was first published on June 8, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.