Arcadis reshuffles the management deck after Hyder takeover

Dutch engineer Arcadis has announced a number of management changes in the wake of its acquisition of UK-based rival Hyder Consulting for £296m at the end of last year. 

Alan Brookes, the current chief executive of the Arcadis’ UK branch, will lead the 3,900 strong UK team. Ivor Catto, who has been chief executive of Hyder since 2008, is stepping down at the end of the month. When the takeover was agreed, he made £1.2m from the sale of his shares.  

Neil McArthur, the chief executive of Arcadis, said: "I would like to thank Ivor for his help in Hyder’s smooth transition to Arcadis, and his facilitation of the alignment of Hyder’s capabilities at both regional and global levels. Under his leadership Hyder has successfully built the operating model based on global design excellence which was a major consideration for us when acquiring Hyder." 

Wael Allan, Hyder’s group operating officer, will take over the Middle East subsidiary, which employs 2,200 staff. John Williams, the present chief executive for the region, will move to the role of chief operating officer. 

One of the attractions of the deal for Arcadis was the chance to move into the Australasian region, where Hyder employed 965 people. Greg Steele (pictured), the present managing director of Hyder’s operations there will become the regional chief executive under the new regime.  

In addition to the appointment of regional bosses, Graham Reid, Hyder’s UK managing director, will become global design director, "creating additional resource flexibility to meet client demands". Reid has led Hyder’s UK business for the past five years and also established and developed the company’s Indian global design centres.     

McArthur said: "The strategic rationale for bringing Hyder and Arcadis together was to strengthen our design and consultancy position in key markets, provide a strong entry point into the Australian market and accelerate our ability to service clients in all markets from our design excellence centres across the world. 

"Alan, Graham, Greg and Wael are all vastly experienced business leaders whom I am excited to be working with to help our clients and our people realise the full value of our joint offering. We have already seen synergy in our coming together through client wins, notably the recent Crossrail 2 win against world-class competition in the UK." 

Altogether, Arcadis now employs 28,000 people and has a turnover of $3.4bn. 

Grontmij regroups 

Meanwhile, fellow Dutch engineering Grontmij has also announced senior management changes in the wake of the resignation of Danish managing director Søren Larsen. When he leaves on 1 March,  he will be replaced by John Chubb, the current UK managing director. Jeff Davitt, currently chief financial officer of Grontmij UK, will be appointed interim managing director.  

Michiel Jaski, the chief executive of Grontmij, said: "Since joining the company in 1992, Søren Larsen has played an instrumental role in building the Grontmij business in Denmark. We would like to thank him for his loyalty and much-valued contributions to Grontmij over the years. John Chubb has a strong track record, extensive management experience within Grontmij and the leadership skills to further strengthen Grontmij’s position in Denmark." 

Chubb is credited with turning around the fortunes of Grontmij’s Leeds-based UK subsidiary after its turnover fell £11m in 2010 as a result of the slump and pre-tax losses rose to £4.8m  by the reduced numbers employed by the business in 2010, down from 1,139 to 911. Chubb restructured the business in 2012, and it reported an operating profit for the year ending 31 December 2013 of £2.1m.

Photograph: Greg Steele, Hyder Consulting’s Australian head, is to lead Arcadis’ new Australian Pacific region (source: Hyder Consulting)