Holt Construction Corp., a Pearl River, N.Y., construction management firm and buildings contractor, has elevated Patricia Zugibe to CEO. In that role, the former company counsel succeeds Jack Holt, who becomes chairman. Christopher Asaro remains president.
Before joining Holt in 2014, Zugibe was a partner in PVZ Development and owner of North Rockland Developers Inc. Holt ranks among ENR’s current Top 400 contractors and Top 100 design-build firms.
TechnipFMC, London, which provides energy sector oilfield services and equipment and project management, along with engineering and technology, resumed a planned spinoff of its Technip Energies services unit into a new public company that took effect on Feb. 16. The split was announced last March but delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.
Unit President Arnaud Pieton will be CEO of the spinoff, which will be Paris-based and trade on the EuroNext exchange and on the American over-the-counter market. with about 15,000 global employees. Set to include the Genesis advisory service and front-end engineering business, the firm says it will be “ideally positioned to accelerate the energy transition” and can benefit from new market potential and distinct customers.
Investment bank Bpifrance, a major shareholder, intends to invest $200 million in Technip Energies by acquiring TechnipFMC shares. The new firm also named to its board Simon Eyers, founding partner of 4D Global Energy Advisors, an energy-sector focused private equity firm, and former managing director and senior advisor at Warburg Pincus International, who specialized in energy investments.
Doug Pferdehirt remains chairman and CEO of TechnipFMC, which will trade on EuroNext and the NY Stock Exchange. The firm ranks at No. 31 on ENR’s Top 250 Global Contractors list, reporting about $13.4 billion in 2019 construction revenue, and at No. 46 on ENR’s Top 225 Global Design Firms list, reporting $925.1 million in 2019 global engineering revenue. With the spinoff, TechnipFMC no longer ranks on the S&P 500. The firm was created in 2017 following the merger of Technip and US-based FMC Technologies.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. has named Eleni Beyko senior vice president for offshore wind, “a strategic growth area” for fiscal 2021, said CEO Lasse Petterson in the firm’s Feb. 17 results announcement for 2020.
She had been Americas energy transition director at TechnipFMC.
Petterson said the company has realigned offices in line with market strategy. Formerly headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., It now is based in Houston, with new regional offices in New York City and Jacksonville, Fla., which positions it for work in dredging, oil and gas and LNG exports, as well as developing east coast offshore wind power opportunities.
GLDD ranks at No. 132 on ENR's Top 400 Contractors list, reporting $711 million in 2019 construction revenue.
He said the firm is developing the first U.S.-flagged, Jones Act-compliant inclined fallpipe vessel for subsea rock installation. Petterson also noted “record” full year results, with $151.1 million in adjusted earnings that are 11.4% above 2019.
“We expect the dredging market to remain strong in 2021,” driven by East and Gulf coast port deepening, said Petterson. GLDD won 39% of its $1.8-billion Americas region project bids. Firm stock is up 52% in the last 12 months.
Design firm CallisonRTKL has elevated Kim Heartwell to CEO, to remain based in Washington, D.C. A three-decade company executive, she had been senior vice president of its interiors architecture studio. The company, a unit of Arcadis North America, also named Harold Thompson as its firs chief operating officer, based in Dallas. He had been vice president and office director and is a former HDR managing principal. CallisonRTKL has about 1,200 employees and notes its 75th year of operation in 2021.
Heartwell succeeds Kelly Farrell, who has joined design firm NBBJ as corporate and commercial practice director, based in New York City. The firm ranks at No. 76 on ENR's Top 500 Design Firms list
Plaza Construction has elevated Brad Meltzer to chairman and CEO, succeeding Richard Wood, who retired. Christopher Mills, former chief operating officer, now is president. Meltzer began his Plaza career in 1989 as an intern, says the firm, which is owned by China Construction America, the U.S. unit of China State Construction Engineering Corp.
AECOM has named Jennifer Aument as CEO of global transportation, effective on April 5. She had been president of Transurban North America, and a 16-year executive of the Australia-based firm who had overseen toll road development, financing, delivery and operation in the U.S. and Canada. She also is a board member of the American Road and Transportation Builders and Eno Center for Transportation. The professional services giant also has hired as CEO of its global program management business, Drew Jeter, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and civil engineering officer who was, most recently, president of Americas region business for Hill International, and is a former manager at CH2M and Jacobs.
The firm also said last month that Andrew Liu has rejoined as senior vice president and U.S. west transportation business lead, based in Los Angeles. He had been senior vice president and a chief product officer at Parsons since 2018, previously working for AECOM from 2013 to 2017.
The appointments come as AECOM reported its first quarter 2021 results on Feb. 9, posting revenue of $3.3 billion and 13.1% margin, ahead of analysts' 12.7% estimate, said Andrew Wittmann, analyst at Baird Equity Research, tieing margin gain to its previous restructuring efforts. He noted that "program management surfaces as the new priority."
The firm also said Feb. 16 that it has set a fiscal 2024 earnings-per-share target of $4.30, up from $2.15 in fiscal 2020, and a target of 15% margin for its segments by fiscal 2024, with a "long term aspirational" goal of 17%. “We are as focused as ever on accelerating revenue growth and delivering against our new financial targets,” said Troy Rudd, CEO of AECOM, who shared corporate growth strategy initiatives with investors in a Feb. 16 presentation.
"We view the quarter as a step in the right direction," said Jamie Cook, lead sector analyst at Credit Suisse, pointing to "new management ... delivering on guidance in a challenging market while executing against the company’s long-term plans to improve margins." She added that "while financial targets appeared aggressive at first, there are multiple avenues to achieve these targets, " and said they are "well thought through."
According to Wittmann, "the new professional services model appears to be delivering the more predictable results we'd hoped for." Whiie total backlog dipped quarter over quarter, he said, "contracted backlog saw very good gains. From here, management seems keen to make 'people' acquisitions versus platforms, a far superior strategy, in our view."
While Wittmann said the firm's "prior history of 'false starts' seems better focused today than at any time in the company's publid history, " Cook noted risks of "execution against the bid pipeline and economic risk associated with COVID-19."
Transurban said it has elevated to CEO of its North American operation, Pierce Coffee, a vice president and veteran operations manager for the firm's northern Virginia toll road concession. She also assumes management of its role in leading the consortium, Accelerate Maryland Partners, which is one of three bidders for an $11-billion highway widening and toll road P3 contract for Interstates 495 and 270 in suburban Maryland. The state has indicated it will award the winning proposal by month's end.
The Georgia Institute of Technology named Raheem Beyah as new dean of the College of Engineering. He was university vice president for interdisciplinary research and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. U.S. News & World Report ranks the school fourth in the U.S. among undergraduate engineering programs and first in doctoral degrees awarded to African-Americans
Veteran industry executive Todd K. Wager has joined TRC Cos., Windsor, Conn., as president of its infrastructure business, based in Tampa, Fla. Most recently, he was chief strategy officer at engineer EXP, and he also had been president of the transportation and government services groups at Parsons, Also newly hired is Rob Bordner, now vice president of strategic planning following TRC's late 2020 purchase of Seattle-based EMI Consulting, of which he was CEO. EMI specializes in clean energy strategies, including energy efficiency, demand management and decarbonization.
Environmental engineering and construction firm Brown and Caldwell, Irvine, Calif., has elevated 20-year veteran Marc Damikolas to chief operating officer from director of operations. The firm has 1,700 employees.
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