CEO Message
December 15, 2015
Organizational Announcement
Following the Senior Leadership Team meeting last month, I shared with you the urgent need to make fundamental changes to our business to become more efficient. We recently completed our forecast for the remainder of FY2016 and FY2017. The challenges in the coming quarters and the continued industry downturn are driving the need to take swift action to address our market realities. The SLT has heavily relied upon extensive inputs from cross-functional project teams from every part of the business and every region to develop the new organizational structure we are beginning to introduce. Today I want to tell you about two initial changes specifically focused on improving our competitiveness, while enhancing customer delivery and driving new business development.
In the coming months we plan to streamline our regional structure by reducing the number of regions from six to four. These regions will better align with our customers in terms of geography, language and culture.
- Asia Pacific (APAC) will include Australia and Southeast Asia with head offices in Perth, Australia led by Nick Mair
- Europe, Mid-East and Africa (EMEA) will include the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Middle East and Africa with head offices in Aberdeen, Scotland led by Mark Abbey
- Latin America (LAM) will include Brazil, Mexico, Central America and South America with head offices in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil led by Tomas Salazar
- Norway, Eastern Europe, Caspian and Canada (NECC) will include Norway, Eastern Europe, Caspian, Kazakhstan and Canada with head offices in Stavanger, Norway led by Arne Roland
As part of this regional consolidation, we plan to cease to manage AEA and Nigeria as separate regions due to the expiration of a number of contracts. Because our presence in Nigeria is largely focused on future anticipated tenders, Shafiul Syed will now report to Barry Parsons to better align these efforts with the Sales organization. Chris Krajewski will remain with CHC reporting to me to coordinate the implementation of our restructuring efforts. Regrettably it may be necessary to make some reductions to our workforce where support is no longer required or positions overlap.
The development of new markets is of critical importance to CHC’s future. To drive the development of our sales pipeline we are forming a new Business Development team. The primary objective of this team is to fuel the growth of our business in new geographies and industries. In addition, they will manage new business operations until established and transitioned to the four regions. This will allow the regions to sharpen their focus on delivery with established customers, while tapping into a flexible and scalable team of resources co-located in the regions. The Business Development team will partner with the regions to:
- Support sales and tender processes
- Deliver operational, jurisdictional, financial and AOC support
- Provide mobilization and de-mobilization process expertise
- Maintain low cost international touring expertise
Barry is hiring a Houston-based Sales Director to lead the Business Development team which will include sales representatives in each region. In the coming weeks Dave Balevic will announce an Operations Leader for Business Development who will report to him.
We have more work to do to simplify our global organizational structure, reduce functional complexity and remove layers in the company. I know you have questions about what changes will take place in your areas and how those may affect you, and you have my commitment to communicate information as quickly as possible. These are not decisions we take lightly, but we believe these changes are crucial to our ability to adjust the company's cost structure and ensure we have the resources to drive future profitable growth.
Best regards,
Karl Fessenden
President and CEO