Former security contractor Edward Snowden did not hurt business at the defense contractor where he collected the domestic surveillance secrets he leaked to several media outlets, setting off a global uproar over digital privacy, Booz Allen Hamilton's CEO told CNBC on Thursday.
"Actually it hasn't been as tough as one might imagine," CEO Ralph Shrader said on "Squawk on the Street." "Edward Snowden was a 10-week interval in a 100-year history of our firm. Our firm is much stronger than that. He doesn't represent us. He was just an aberration."
National Security Agency building in Fort Meade, Md.AP
Shrader's comments came a day after The New York Times published an editorial asking the U.S. government to grant Snowden clemency and treat him as a whistle-blower. Several months ago, Snowden leaked droves of confidential documents to The Guardian and other media outlets that called into question the legality of the NSA's massive data collection operations.
(Read more: ACLU sues US govt over surveillance program)
Snowden faces a possible life sentence if he returns to U.S. from his exile in Russia. Shrader wouldn't discuss how authorities should treat Snowden if he returns to U.S. soil.
