Morrison Knudsen Announces Operating Unit Presidents
Morrison Knudsen (MK) of Boise, ID announced the five executives that will head the operating units of the newly restructured company following its acquisition of Raytheon Engineers & Constructors (RE&C).
MK expects to close the acquisition in late May or early June. The company then will be organized into five market-specific operating units: Power, Infrastructure, Industrial/Process, Government Services, and Petroleum & Chemical.
The five executives who have been named to head these units—with the title of president and chief executive officer—are:
Power. David L. Myers, currently president and chief operating officer of RE&C, will head the unit. It will primarily target independent and merchant power plant engineering and construction, existing plant modifications/retrofit (including steam generator replacements), life extension, decontamination and decommissioning, plant operations and maintenance, and support-services projects in the power-generation industry.
Infrastructure. Roger J. Ludlam, currently president/CEO of Morrison Knudsen Contractors Group, will head this unit. It will target domestic and international heavy civil construction, infrastructure services, and design/build projects primarily in the highway, railroad and transit, water conveyance and treatment, hydroelectric power, marine, and airport markets. The group will also provide engineering and mine-operations services to the mining industry.
Industrial/Process. Thomas H. Zarges, currently president/CEO of MK Engineers & Constructors Group, will lead the unit. It will provide engineering, construction, and project-management services to the food and beverage, process, automotive, aerospace, institutional building, pulp and paper, general manufacturing, metals processing, pharmaceutical/biotech, operations and maintenance, telecommunications and other markets.
Government Services. Ambrose L. Schwallie, currently president and chief executive officer of the MK Government Services Group, will lead this unit that will target waste-management services, environmental planning and remediation, space-facilities design, and chemical weapons demilitarization projects with the United States Departments of Energy and Defense and other clients.
Petroleum/Chemicals. Robert C. Wiesel, currently RE&C's senior vice president of petroleum and chemicals, will head the unit. It will provide technology licensing, engineering, procurement, and construction services to the petroleum and chemicals industries.
All operating unit presidents will report to MK's Office of the Chairman, composed of company chairman/CEO Dennis R. Washington, president Stephen G. Hanks, and COO Vincent L. Kontny.
Myers joined RE&C in his present position in 1999 after spending 24 years with Fluor Corporation. He held numerous executive positions with Fluor Engineers and Constructors and Fluor Daniel and spent four years in Saudi Arabia and three years in England. He headed the company's European, Middle East and African operations, and later was named president of Fluor's Environmental Strategies Operating Company. In 1996, Myers was named chairman of Fluor Daniel GTI, a global environmental services company. In 1997 he was promoted to group president-industrial of Fluor Daniel Group and his final assignment with Fluor was president of Fluor Global Services, Operations, Maintenance, and Consulting Services units. Myers served for seven years in the U.S. Navy's submarine service after graduating from the Naval Academy.
A 34-year industry veteran, Ludlam joined MK in early 1999 as president and chief executive officer of the Morrison Knudsen Contractors Group. Prior to joining MK, he served as president and chief executive officer of Perini Corporation. Earlier positions included president and chief executive officer of Park Construction Company, and president and chief executive officer of S.J. Groves & Sons.
Zarges has spent 29 years in the engineering and construction industry and joined MK in 1991 as president of the company's Power and Industrial/Manufacturing Division. He was promoted to president and chief executive officer of the MK Engineers & Constructors Group in 1995. Prior to joining MK, Zarges spent 20 years with Raytheon subsidiary United Engineers & Constructors, serving in engineering, project-management, and business-development positions.
Schwallie was named president and chief executive officer of the MK Government Services Group in 1999 after joining MK earlier in the year when the company acquired the Westinghouse government services operations. Schwallie worked for Westinghouse for 27 years in a variety of research, engineering, and management positions. He served as president of the Westinghouse Savannah River Company from 1991 to 1999 where he directed more than 10,000 employees operating the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile nuclear facility in South Carolina.
Wiesel joined RE&C in 1999 in his present position after 27 years with Stone & Webster. He joined Stone & Webster in 1972 and worked as an engineer and manager of power generating projects for several years. In 1989, he was named president and chief executive officer of Stone & Webster Canada, Ltd. He rose to executive VP and manager of Stone & Webster's Boston office; chairman/CEO of SWEC, Stone & Webster's principal operating unit; group president of the process and industrial units; and, finally, executive vice president of Stone & Webster, and vice chairman of SWEC.
Washington said that various support services for the five business units are being defined and should be announced prior to financial closing.
Morrison Knudsen Corporation currently has 22,000 employees at work in more than 35 countries serving the energy, environmental, government, heavy-civil, industrial, mining, nuclear-services, operations and maintenance, process, transportation, and water-resources markets as an engineer, constructor, and program manager. Upon closing of the RE&C acquisition MK will have 36,000 employees in 50 countries.
Edited by Alan S. Brown, managing editor for Chemical Online