Engineering and project consultancy Atkins has recruited a number of high-profile people to bolster its digital team as turnover soars over £2bn
The group has recruited “digital disruptors” to enhance its global position as a digital and innovation leader in the engineering sector.
Phil Gruber joins from IBM as global leader for digital Asset Management (dAM), Adrian Pinder joins from GE as digital commercial strategy director and Marc Durand joins from iTech as director for digital disruption.
Richard Cross, Atkins’ chief digital officer, said: “We want to help our clients realise all the benefits that new digital approaches have to offer and our aim is to become the undisputed leader of digital innovation in the industry.
“This means integrating digital into the way we think, the way we work and the services we deliver to clients. We believe these hires will strengthen our position as an innovative and agile company, embracing the tremendous digital opportunities we have seen to develop new value services for our clients and new business models for Atkins.”
Pinder will be based in the UK and will lead work across the group to better understand the market opportunities for new technologies and solutions.
Gruber will be based in Colorado, North America, and is responsible for driving the company to use digital data and technology to reduce costs, control risks and improve whole life asset performance.
Durand will be based in Dubai and is leading the Middle East and Africa region to fully implement Atkins’ digital vision, focusing on enabling creation of new revenue streams.
The news of the appointments comes as the group also issued a strong set of financial results with growth in revenue and profit.
The company has posted revenue of £2.08bn for the year ended 31 March 2017, an increase of almost 12% from £1.86bn a year earlier.
Underlying profit before tax rose by 18.4% from £139m to £164.6m, while statutory profit before tax was up 12.7% to £147.7m.
Chairman Allan Cook and chief executive Dr Uwe Krueger said: “We delivered a strong set of results this year with underlying profit before tax improving by 18.4% to £164.6m. Our underlying operating margin continued to improve and we delivered revenue growth on a constant currency basis of 4.3%, underpinned by the acquisition of PP&T in 2016.
“We believe that the group is in a strong position to execute on its growth strategy going forward.”
In April Atkins agreed to a £2.1bn takeover offer with Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin.
