5th Sep 2014 07:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - John Menzies PLC Friday said it has appointed Jeremy Stafford, the former head of Serco's UK government work who stepped down in the wake of issues with a criminal tagging contract, as its new chief executive.
In a statement, John Menzies said Stafford will take the helm of the aviation services and media distributor on October 2.
Serco last year had to pay a fine for wrongly charging on a criminal tagging contract it had with the Ministry of Justice. In the fallout, which included several profit warnings, Serco was banned from bidding for new UK government work for a time as it worked to restructure and put new controls in place to ensure the issues couldn't be repeated. The problems also led to a change of management, with Stafford following former group Chief Executive Christopher Hyman out of the door.
When he left Serco, he was head of its UK and Europe division, which then included its UK Government contracts. The division represented about GBP2.5 billion of revenue. Stafford's decision to step down from Serco came as the company split the unit in two, separating out the UK central government business from the rest as apart of a "renewal" programme.
In its statement, John Menzies said Stafford was bringing his experience of leading and growing large-scale international contracting businesses and a strong track record "operationally and strategically".
He started at British Airways, and then went on to work for BT PLC, Phoenix IT Group and then Serco.
"We are at an exciting stage of our development with strong growth opportunities and Jeremy, with his strategic vision and extensive experience of operational management and contracting in a business to business environment, is the ideal person to lead us forward," John Menzies Chairman Iain Napier said in a statement.
"I am delighted to be joining John Menzies and look forward to working with the board and the executive management to further the group's potential, by building on its strong market positions," Stafford said in the statement.
John Menzies shares were flat at 615.00 pence early Friday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
SercoMNZS.L