For immediate release
30 July 2018
Keller Group
plc
Board changes
Keller Group plc (“Keller” or “the Group”), the world’s largest
geotechnical contractor, announced on 18
July 2018 that James Hind,
currently the Group’s Finance Director, is appointed President of
Keller’s North America division,
remaining an Executive Director, and Michael Speakman joins Keller as Chief Financial
Officer and an Executive Director, both effective from 20 August 2018.
Keller today announces that Chris
Girling, independent Non-executive Director and Chairman of
the Audit Committee, has decided to retire from the Board at the
conclusion of the Company’s Annual General Meeting to be held in
May 2019, having served on the Board
for 8 years. Chris will step down as Chairman of the Audit
Committee with effect from 1 January 2019.
Paula Bell will join the Board as
an independent Non-executive Director with effect from 1 September 2018, and succeed Chris Girling as Audit Committee Chairman on
1 January 2019.
Paula has extensive international strategic, financial,
commercial and M&A experience from large listed global
companies and is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Spirent
Communications plc, a leading multi-national testing and solutions
group. From 2013 to 2016 she was Chief Financial Officer of
support services group John Menzies
plc and between 2006 and 2013 was Group Finance Director of the
advanced engineering group Ricardo plc. Previously, she held
senior management positions at BAA plc, AWG plc and Rolls-Royce
plc.
Paula was a Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit
Committee of the global FTSE 250 engineering and technology group
Laird PLC from 2012 until its acquisition and delisting in
July 2018, including a period as
Senior Independent Director. Paula is a Fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Chartered
Global Management Accountant.
Baroness Kate Rock also joins the
Board on 1 September 2018 as an
independent Non-executive Director.
From 2014 until November 2017,
Kate was a Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration
Committee of Imagination Technologies plc, the former global
FTSE250 high technology company. Kate was appointed a Life
Peer in 2015. She is currently a member of the House of Lords
Select Committee on the Rural Economy. From 2017-2018 she was a
member of the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. She is a
Non-executive Director of Real World Technologies Limited and
Senior Adviser at Instinctif Partners.
Kate has a strong international background in corporate
communications and business relations. She was a partner at
College Hill for 12 years from 1996, where she provided strategic
counsel and business communications advice to international public
and private companies. Kate was Vice-Chairman of the
Conservative Party with responsibility for business engagement
until July 2016, giving her
wide-ranging exposure to a large number of industries, including
large-scale infrastructure projects. Kate holds a BA in Publishing
and History.
Peter Hill, Chairman, said:
“I am delighted to welcome Paula and Kate to the
Board.
These appointments, together with that of Michael Speakman recently announced, reflect our
commitment to effective board development and these three
appointments will strengthen the Board through further diversity of
skills and experience including of wide-ranging plc corporate
development and shareholder value creation. I look forward to
working with Paula, Kate and Michael, and with James in his new
role.”
For further information, please contact:
Keller Group
plc |
www.keller.com |
Kerry
Porritt, Group Company Secretary |
020 7616 7575 |
Notes to editors:
Keller is the world’s largest geotechnical contractor, providing
technically advanced geotechnical solutions to the construction
industry. With annual revenue of more than £2.0bn, Keller has
approximately 11,000 staff world-wide.
Keller is the clear market leader in the US, Canada, Australia and South
Africa; it has prime positions in most established European
markets and a strong profile in many developing markets.
For more information, please go to:
http://www.keller.com/investors.aspx and
http://www.keller.com.
LEI: 549300QO4MBL43UHSN10
Classification: Inside
Information (DTR Annex 1)
This announcement includes inside
information as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation
No. 596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's
obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations. On the
publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information
Service ("RIS"), this information is considered to be in the public
domain.
The person responsible for making
this announcement is Kerry Porritt,
Group Company Secretary