Houston, Tx., USA - September 5, 2014, Houston, Tx., USA - Willbros Group, Inc., a global engineering and contractor company, announced that Robert R. Harl is retiring as CEO and director when his current employment agreement expires on January 2, 2015.
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Mr. Harl joined Willbros in 2006. He was elected to the Board of Directors and President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company in January 2006, and as Chief Executive Officer in January 2007. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and is a member of the Executive Leadership Team.
Mr. Harl has more than 30 years of experience working with Kellogg Brown & Root, a global engineering, construction and services company, and its subsidiaries in a variety of officer capacities, serving as President of several of the KBR business units. Mr. Harl’s experience includes executive management responsibilities for units serving both upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors as well as power, government and infrastructure sectors.
He was President and Chief Executive Officer of KBR from March 2001 until July 2004 when he was appointed Chairman, a position he held until January 2005. Mr. Harl was engaged as a consultant to the Company from August 2005 until he became an executive officer and director of the Company in January 2006.
John T. McNabb, II, non-executive Chairman of the Board of the Company, has been elected by the Willbros board of directors as Executive Chairman of the Board on an interim basis, effective immediately.
Mr. McNabb, II has served as non-executive Chairman of the Board since September 2007. He was elected to the Board of Directors in August 2006. Mr. McNabb is Vice Chairman, Corporate Finance of Investment Banking of Duff & Phelps Corporation, a global independent provider of financial advisory and investment banking services. He assumed his role with Duff & Phelps on June 30, 2011.
Prior thereto, he founded and was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Growth Capital Partners, L.P., an investment and merchant banking firm that has provided financial advisory services to middle market companies throughout the United States since 1992.
Previously, he was a Managing Director of Bankers Trust New York Corporation and a Board member of BT Southwest, Inc., the southwest U.S. merchant banking affiliate of Bankers Trust, from 1989 to 1992.
Mr. McNabb started his career, after serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam conflict, with Mobil Oil in its exploration and production division. He has served on the boards of seven public companies, including Hiland Partners, LP, Warrior Energy Services Corporation, Hugoton Energy Corporation and Vintage Petroleum, Inc., and currently serves on the board of Continental Resources, Inc. He earned both his undergraduate degree and MBA from Duke University.
Additionally, the Company announced that S. Miller Williams has been elected as Lead Independent Director.
Mr. Williams was elected to the Board of Directors in May 2004. From April 2011 to August 2014, he was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of LinkBermuda Ltd, a telecommunications services company based in Bermuda. Mr. Williams served as Executive Vice President – Finance and Administration of Soltherm Energy LLC, a renewable energy company from August 2009 to April 2011.
He has been Managing Director of Willvest, an investment and corporate development advisory firm, since 2004. He was Executive Vice President of Strategic Development of Vartec Telecom, Inc., an international consumer telecommunications services company, from August 2002 until May 2004, and was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Vartec in November 2003. ■