As expected, major Energy Department contractor Fluor has formally selected longtime executive Carlos Hernandez as its permanent CEO, about two weeks after he took the job on an interim basis.
Fluor’s Board of Directors also announced Thursday in a press release that Hernandez, previously the company executive vice president and chief legal officer, would serve on the board.
Hernandez became interim CEO on May 1 after Fluor announced that David Seaton was stepping down as chief executive and board member. Seaton joined Fluor in 1984, then became CEO in 2011 and chairman in 2012. He exited amid disappointing financial performance of late for the global engineering, procurement, and construction company based near Dallas.
Alan Boeckmann, a former Fluor CEO and current executive chairman of its board, suggested May 1 that Hernandez would be more than an “interim” leader, because the company was not doing a formal search for Seaton’s replacement. The company said Thursday Hernandez’s promotion was in line with Fluor’s established succession plan.
“Carlos’ engineering and legal background, combined with his 12 years successfully serving in executive leadership roles at Fluor, makes him uniquely qualified to lead the company and our team of talented global professionals,” Boeckmann said in the Thursday news release.
“While I recognize our challenges, first and foremost, I believe the underlying business fundamentals are strong. Currently, most of our projects are profitable, and my immediate priority will be to ensure we have appropriately applied our project governance review methodology and fully identify the underlying issues on the few projects that have contributed to recent underperformance,” Hernandez said.
A strategic review of company operations should be ready in time for the second quarter earnings results in August, Hernandez added.
John Reynolds replaces Hernandez as chief legal officer. Reynolds has been with Fluor for more than 30 years, most recently serving in the position of managing general counsel.
Fluor has a big footprint in the DOE weapons complex.
Among other jobs, Fluor is an integrated subcontractor to Triad National Security, which in 2018 secured the potential $20 billion, 10-year contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Fluor is also the lead partner in the operations and management team at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, under a 10-year, $11 billion contract. That work, under an extension that runs through July, includes management of the facility where the National Nuclear Security Administration harvests fresh tritium to boost the power of nuclear weapons.
