Rolls-Royce declares major leadership reshuffle
Rolls-Royce unveils major leadership reshuffle as new boss vows to lead aerospace company from ‘burning platform’
- Tufan Erginbilgic succeeded Warren East as CEO at the end of 2022
- Helen McCabe has been appointed to become Rolls-Royce’s next chief financial officer
- Rob Watson has replaced Chris Cholerton as Chief of Civil Aerospace Department
Rolls-Royce has announced a shake-up of its leadership team as part of the new CEO’s plans to turn the tech giant’s fortunes around.
Tufan Erginbilgic, who succeeded Warren East as CEO at the end of 2022, launched a transformation program in January to boost the company’s profitability.
He has likened the FTSE 100 company, known for producing aircraft engines, to a ‘burning platform’ and said its current trajectory was ‘unsustainable’, adding that it had ‘not performed for a very, very long time’.
Turnaround man: Tufan Erginbilgic, who succeeded Warren East as CEO at the end of 2022, launched a transformation program in January to boost the company’s profitability
The Turkish-born boss has appointed Rob Watson to lead Rolls Royce’s civil aerospace division, handing over his position as head of electric aviation technology.
Watson replaces Chris Cholerton, who has moved to the post of group chairman and has been with Rolls-Royce since leaving Oxford University in 1981.
Cholerton, a former Warren East chief of staff, has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis over Rolls-Royce’s faulty Trent 1000 aero engines, which left the company with a £2.4 billion airline compensation bill.
He was also in charge at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when grounding aircraft caused a severe financial blow to Rolls-Royce, as revenues depend largely on how often planes fly with its engines.
Rolls-Royce said Watson brings “innovative business insight coupled with robust commercial discipline, as well as a proven ability to develop and maintain strong customer and supplier relationships.”
Meanwhile, Helen McCabe, a former colleague of Erginbilgic at oil supermajor BP, has been hired to become Rolls-Royce’s next chief financial officer.
She succeeds Panos Kakoullis, who will step down at the end of August after just two years in his position, having previously worked for ‘Big Four’ accounting firm Deloitte for three decades.
McCabe has been with BP for more than a quarter of a century and is currently the senior vice president of finance for the customer and product business, which includes the Castrol lubricant brand and the Pulse electric vehicle charging network.
Erginbilgic said: ‘Her track record of fostering strict financial discipline and experience delivering performance management to achieve dramatic improvements will be invaluable as we move at a rapid pace to transform Rolls-Royce.
“I have experienced her capabilities first-hand and her skills will complement the existing capabilities of the executive team, enabling Rolls-Royce to realize its considerable potential.”
In addition, Tom Samson, the head of the group’s small modular reactors division, has left effective immediately, while Adam Riddle becomes president of the company’s defense operations and chairman in the North America region.
Rolls-Royce said the former military officer was “instrumental” in securing contracts to re-engine the US Air Force’s B-52 aircraft and propulsion system for the V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft currently under development. provided.
Rolls-Royce Holdings Shares Stocks were up 0.8 percent at 151.4 pence in early trading on Friday, though they remain well below their pre-pandemic levels.