SYSTRA’S SUPERVISORY BOARD RENEWS ITS CONFIDENCE IN THE EXECUTIVE BOARD AND APPOINTS A NEW INTERNATIONAL MEMBER
On May 26, SYSTRA’s Supervisory Board renewed its confidence in the Executive Board and appointed Andrew McNaughton, who will take over as COO from 1 June 2016, as a member of the Executive Board.
Elisabeth Borne, President and CEO of RATP and Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board, said, “For this new 5-year term, we have full confidence in the Executive Board, which has proudly flown the colours of French engineering around the world, and has created and nurtured the SYSTRA spirit, reflected in its passion for public transportation, technical excellence and enthusiasm”.
For Guillaume Pepy, Chairman of the Executive Board of SNCF, “The appointment of Andrew McNaughtonas Chief Operating Officer marks a new chapter in SYSTRA’s history. By including a British national in the senior management team, SYSTRA’s shareholders have confirmed their commitment to the Group’s international expansion”.
Together, Elisabeth Borne and Guillaume Pepy concluded by saying, “We are certain that SYSTRA’snew and enhanced Executive Board will ensure that SYSTRA remains the world leader in public transport engineering”.
Five years of growth
Since the restructuring of SYSTRA in 2011 and the integration of Inexia and Xelis, respectively subsidiaries of SNCF and RATP, the Group has deliveredresults that match its ambitionto be the world leader in public transport infrastructure engineering.
Since 2012, revenues have risen by 50%, from €406 million to €623 million, while EBIT has doubled from €12.1 million to €25.5 million. Bolstered by this performance, the Group is on track to achieve the objectives set out in its growth plan, SYSTRA 2018, and is confident that it will generate revenues of €800 million in 2018.
SYSTRA is the market leader in France, where it is involved in the Grand Paris Express transit project and the extension of four high-speed lines. It boasts excellent sales momentum and strong international growth. Its biggest markets outside France are Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt and the United Kingdom.
The Group’s growth has been accompaniedby a strong increase in the headcount via both recruitment and acquisitions, to reinforce its presence in countries offering growth potential and to enhance its cutting-edge expertise. At year-end 2015, SYSTRA had 5,400 employees. Over 2,000 new people have joined the company since 2012, including 1,000 through acquisitions in India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia.
A new and enhanced Executive Board
On 1 June, Andrew McNaughton joins SYSTRA Group as Chief Operating Officer (COO). He will take over from Frédéric Delorme, who joined SNCF as Head of Security in January 2016.
Aged 52, he has spent much of his career within the Balfour Beatty group, one of the UK’s leading construction groups, which he joined in 1997. Between 2007 and 2009, he led Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Ltd, where, notably, he was project manager for CTRL (HS1), before being appointed COO of the group in 2009. He served as its CEO from March 2013 to March 2014. He took over as Director of Engineering and Construction at Tidal Lagoon Power in April 2015.
Andrews’s international expertise and operational and project management capabilities, as well as his M&A experience, will be of considerable benefit to the Executive Board.
Andrew McNaughton joins the Executive Board, whose current members are:
- Pierre Verzat, Chief Executive Officer,
- Bruno Schmitt, Corporate Secretary,
- Mathieu Dunant, Executive VP, France and Innovation.