1218

TRANSACT IONS JACOBS APPOINTS GARY MANDEL TO LEAD INTEGRATION OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED CH2M ACQUISITION; VINAYAK PAI APPOINTED JACOBS’ INTERIM HEAD OF GLOBAL PETROLEUM & CHEMICALS Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. , as part of the separately announced acquisition of CH2M HILL Companies Ltd. , has formed an Integration Management Office to oversee the integration of Jacobs and CH2M. The IMO will be jointly led on a full-time, dedicated basis by senior executives from both companies. Gary Mandel, who joined Jacobs six years ago through the Aker Solutions Process and Construction acquisition, and most recently served as Jacobs president of Petroleum and Chemicals, has been appointed to lead the integration for Jacobs. In addition, Jacobs announced that Vinayak Pai has been appointed interim head of global Petroleum and Chemicals. “I have the greatest confidence in these accomplished executives in their new roles,” said Steve Demetriou, Jacobs chairman and chief executive officer. “Gary’s previous leadership responsibilities over a 35 year

career, including his extensive experience in infrastructure and government services, coupled with the fact that he has successfully navigated many global acquisitions and integrations make him a great fit for this new role.” “We also extend our appreciation to Vinayak for taking on these expanded responsibilities. Vinayak’s deep experience in the oil and gas, refining and chemical industries position him well to lead the P&C business on an interim basis.” Previously, Mandel served as president of Jacobs’ global P&C business serving clients in the oil and gas, refining and chemicals market sectors – offering a full range of consulting, PMC, EPC and EPCm services. He also led Jacobs’ global Mining and Minerals business. As a result of Jacobs’ acquisition of Aker Solutions Process and Construction business in 2011, Mandel joined Jacobs as executive vice president of Operations overseeing various global portfolios including, upstream and downstream oil and gas business, as well as the heavy process, biopharma,

infrastructure, consulting, module fabrication, specialty chemicals and mining and minerals markets. Prior to joining Jacobs, Mandel served as executive vice president for Aker Solutions, overseeing their oil and gas, process, energy and government services business. Mandel also spent 15 years at Brown and Root in various project leadership roles for the global construction, engineering and maintenance company. Previously, Pai served as senior vice president Global Operations for Jacobs’ P&C business with responsibility for global integrated delivery and EPC and EPCm project delivery excellence globally. Pai, who joined Jacobs in 2013, has more than 28 years of experience in the oil and gas and petrochemical industry, with extensive experience in executing upstream and downstream projects. Pai received an executive MBA from IIT Mumbai, a post graduate in management from Symbiosis Institute in Pune, India and holds an Engineering degree from the College of Engineering in Pune.

CONFERENCE CALL, from page 7

JB: Hire the best people we can find and then get out of their way! That has been a key component for our compa- ny’s success since its founding. We recruit for personality and train for skills. Our culture promotes and supports en- trepreneurial behavior, thus giving our staff opportunities to increase firm profitability and their compensation. Grad- ually increasing responsibility has helped us identify future leaders and develop their entrepreneurial skills. “Maintaining and protecting the brand we have created has been a big challenge as we have grown significantly over the past few years. Immersing new hires in the way we do business, including procedures and systems, is critical.” TZL: What’s your prediction for 2017 and for the next five years? JB: 2017 will be the best year in our 37-year history, as we have major projects in mixed-use, retail, office, multifam- ily, and hospitality. There are some headwinds, as labor is scarce, a recession is overdue, and Congress is gridlocked. But if corporate tax reform does happen this year, we see the potential for explosive growth over the next few years. While we are registered to practice in 34 states, most of our projects are located here in the southeast. We are head- quartered in suburban Atlanta, my hometown, so I may be slightly prejudiced in my opinion, but corporate America wants to, has to be here, and being home to the world’s bus- iest airport only enhances this city’s and this region’s desir- ability and potential for growth.

previously been ignoring. We have conducted several cre- ative marketing campaigns this year with good results, and plan to have more as some high profile projects we designed are being completed. Increase marketing? Yes! TZL: If there was one program, course, or degree pro- gram you could take or recommend before becoming a principal or owner, what would it be? JB: Besides the obvious degrees I should have pursued be- fore starting our firm (MBA, J.D., and Ph.D.), a program in building interpersonal relationships would be a great as- set for new principals in a design firm. So much of winning projects and maintaining a healthy work environment is based upon human interaction and communication. Once a client has selected a firm to design a project, nurturing the relationship and staying in position to win the client’s next project and spread the word about the firm’s quality and professionalism is critical to the design firm’s reputa- tion, growth, and success. TZL: What’s the greatest challenge presented by growth? JB: Maintaining and protecting the brand we have creat- ed has been a big challenge as we have grown significant- ly over the past few years. Immersing new hires in the way we do business, including procedures and systems, is criti- cal. Bringing new team members up to speed with evolving technologies has required heavy investment in infrastruc- ture and training, but in doing so we are well prepared to continue our pattern of expanding into new markets and adding staff to meet our clients’ needs. TZL: What is the role of entrepreneurship in your firm?

THE ZWEIG LETTER October 2, 2017, ISSUE 1218

Made with FlippingBook Annual report