LaMont Wells, former president and chairman of federal defense and intelligence consultant Technology Management Associates, joined AECOM’s management services group as executive vice president in Germantown, Md. A retired U.S. Army colonel, he had held several key Pentagon staff positions. Also hired is John Eschenberg as a project director in the high-level nuclear-waste program of Savannah River Remediation LLC, a limited liability firm that runs the Savannah River, S.C., U.S. nuclear site and in which AECOM is majority partner. He was capital projects-infrastructure director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and, before that, project director of a $6.5-billion uranium processing facility for the U.S. Energy Dept. National Nuclear Security Administration. AECOM also elevated Randall Wotring to technical and operational services president, an expanded role, it said. He joined the firm with its buy of URS, where he was federal services president. AECOM also promoted John Vollmer to management services president from COO.
In fourth-quarter and year-end results, announced Nov. 14, AECOM reported quarter revenue of $4.32 billion and adjusted earnings of 65¢ per share (EPS), below analysts’ predictions of $4.68 billion and 74¢, says Yahoo Finance. Revenue for the year ended Sept. 30 is $17.4 billion and EPS is 62¢. Chairman and CEO Michael S. Burke noted, “Uneven client spending in our Americas design business continued market pressures from low oil and gas prices and lower-than-anticipated earnings from sizable power and industrial construction wins in the second half of the year, due to timing.” AECOM predicted 2017 adjusted profit of $2.70, to $3.10 per share, less than analysts’ $3.24 prediction, says The Wall Street Journal. But Burke reported a “record” $6.3 billion of quarter wins and $25 billion of management services bids “under client review,” most in mission-critical and intelligence work, adding that AECOM has “strong momentum” going into next year.
As of Oct. 31, Bruno Roy is chief financial officer at WSP Global Inc., Montreal. He succeeds Alexandre L’Heureux, who now is president and CEO, in a transition announced in March but contingent on an outside CFO named. Roy was a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. in Hong Kong. WSP’s $887-million third-quarter net revenue rose 5.8%, compared to the same time in 2015, and net profit rose 10.7%, L’Heureux said Nov. 8. But it laid off 450 Canada employees this year due to softer oil-and-gas markets and delayed award of federal infrastructure contracts, media report.