Mr Douglas is a civil engineer with First Class Honours from the University of Adelaide and an MBA from London Business School. Before joining Coffey, he worked with Boral Limited for 15 years. During his last 6 years at Boral, Mr Douglas was the Executive General Manager of the Australian Construction Materials division. Prior to joining Boral, Mr Douglas held various positions with the Boston Consulting Group, Pioneer Concrete UK Ltd, Soil
Mechanics (part of Mowlem International) and Douglas Partners Pty Ltd.
The Chairman of Coffey, Dr John Mulcahy, said: “John Douglas is an ideal successor to Roger. Mr Douglas has demonstrated strong leadership capabilities in highly competitive markets in Australia and internationally. He has a proven ability to deliver against both performance and growth imperatives.
“In his former role, John was highly successful at leveraging results through the devolved management of multiple business units, enhanced by a strong commitment to system standardisation and back office streamlining.
“His experience and management philosophy are highly relevant given Coffey’s diversity of businesses today,” Dr Mulcahy said.
Mr Douglas said: “I am delighted to be joining a business with the potential of Coffey. I look forward to leveraging that potential to build value for our Shareholders while continuing to provide the specialist professional service to our customers for which Coffey is so well known.
“Roger Olds and his team have done a great job in growing the business, and establishing a global footprint and I very much look forward to working with the Coffey team in the next phase of the Company’s development,” Mr Douglas said.
Mr Olds joined Coffey in 1979 and, after a long and distinguished career at Coffey, will continue his association with the Company by assisting Coffey on specific projects as agreed from time to time under a consultancy arrangement.
Mr Olds said; "I am looking forward to the next phase of my career as a consultant, at a less frantic pace, after 15 years as Managing Director. I plan to spend more time with my wife, three children, and two grandchildren, who have given me so much support during my time in Coffey. I am also looking forward to spending more time on project work, driving innovation and collaboration, and transferring my knowledge and experience.”
Dr Mulcahy, said: “Roger is stepping down as part of the Board’s ongoing renewal and succession program which has been underway since my appointment as a non-executive director in 2009.”
“While the Board and Roger agree that now is the right time for a change of leadership, we are pleased that with his deep experience, he will continue to have a relationship with the Company as a consultant.
“Roger is regarded as one of Australia’s leading engineers and he has overseen a long and remarkable period of expansion for Coffey. The Board thanks Roger for his leadership and extraordinary commitment to Coffey and wishes him well in his future endeavours.
“Under his leadership Coffey has grown from a relatively small, Australia focused geotechnics company, to become a global engineering and specialist services business with over 3,000 employees providing consulting, project management and international development services in approximately 80 countries.
“His successor John Douglas is well placed to understand the challenges which face a global business like Coffey and the immediate priority of rebuilding the Company’s revenue and earnings as local and global conditions stabilise and improve. He also has a professional background which is ideally suited to leading this business,” Dr Mulcahy said.
The Company is in the process of finalising its H1 results for release on 16 February and, as part of that process, is reviewing the outlook for the remainder of the financial year including any impact from the recent natural disasters in Queensland. An update will be provided with the release of the H1 results.
Additional information is provided below in the attached PDF:
- John Douglas Biography
- John Douglas: Employment Contract – Summary of Key Terms and Conditions
- Roger Olds: Summary of Payments on Cessation of Employment and Key Terms of Consultancy Agreement
