TORONTO and MARSEILLE, France, March 3,
2023 /CNW/ - Foraco International SA (TSX:
FAR) (the "Company" or "Foraco"), a leading global provider of
mineral and water drilling services, announces today the planned
retirement of Chairman and co-CEO Daniel
Simoncini and co-CEO and CFO Jean-Pierre Charmensat from
their executive management positions effective as of July 1, 2023. Mr. Simoncini and Mr. Charmensat
will continue to serve on the Board of Directors and support an
orderly transition, and will undertake special projects on behalf
of the Board.
Foraco's Board has unanimously approved the following
executive appointments, effective July 1,
2023:
- Tim Bremner, currently SVP,
North America as CEO
- Fabien Seveste, currently Deputy CFO, as CFO
- Olivier Demesy, currently SVP
Brazil, as SVP, Latin America,
Europe and Africa
"On behalf of the Board of Directors," said Warren Holmes, Lead Independent Director, "I
would like to warmly thank Daniel and Jean-Pierre for their
outstanding leadership over the past 26 years to make Foraco one of
the industry leaders in our field, and in particular helping the
Company navigate through the past crisis and reach a point today
where we have a solid foundation to continue to prosper. To
implement a new phase of our strategic journey, we are excited
to promote key employees of the Foraco family. These changes
position Foraco with highly energized leaders with an extensive
knowledge of the Company and the perfect blend of qualities and
expertise for their respective new positions."
Mr. Bremner, incoming Chief Executive Officer, is currently
Senior Vice President, North
America. Tim, who has a BSc in Mining Engineering, joined
Foraco in 2006 to start Foraco Canada. Sixteen years later, Foraco
Canada has become the undisputed reference in water and mineral
drilling in the country, growing from zero to US$100M revenues over the period. Tim has been in
charge of North America
operations, including spot jobs in the US, and brilliantly executed
the integration of the former Connors Drilling and Northwest
Sequoia Drilling companies into Foraco International making
Canada the flagship of our
worldwide operations. He also led the development of our very
successful deep directional core drilling activity from scratch to
multimillion dollars in activity today, together with the expansion
of our underground activity.
Mr. Sevestre, incoming Chief Financial Officer, is currently
Deputy Chief Financial Officer. Fabien, a Chartered Accountant,
joined Foraco in 2001 as a Cost Controller and since 2007 has
supervised the Corporate Accounting and Control Department at
Foraco. Fabien has since been involved in all stages of the
organization and in the development of Foraco, including a decisive
role in the latter debt restructuring, and will continue to
represent a key figure for the continuity of this mission.
Olivier Demesy, incoming Senior
Vice President Latin America, Europe and Africa, is currently Vice President,
Brazil. Olivier is Mechanical
Engineer by training and joined Foraco in 2011 as EMEA Manager for
a couple of years before relocating to Brazil to lead the Servitec integration into
Foraco International together with our local minority partner. Over
ten years, Olivier transformed Servitec Foraco – now Foraco Brazil
– into a recognized leader in the country with spectacular
results.
Commenting on the leadership succession, Chairman and Co-CEO
Daniel Simoncini said, "September 2022 marked Foraco's 60th anniversary
and together with Jean-Pierre, we've decided that it is time to
transition our co-CEO roles to the next generation of leadership.
It took us almost two decades to recruit, train and develop an
extraordinary management team which has proven its unique qualities
during good and bad times; and thus, we are convinced that we have
a great succession plan in place and that the Company is on track
to thrive moving forward. We're excited to welcome Tim Bremner as the new CEO upon our retirement.
Tim is recognized as one of the best professional leaders in our
space, as an expert in all types of drilling and as a true believer
in Foraco's core values."
Co-CEO Jean-Pierre Charmensat continued, "Looking back at these
26 years, we're extremely proud of our achievements, from bringing
fresh water to millions of people in need to developing a leading
global scale mineral drilling company based on strong values,
personal development, audacity, multi-culturalism, optimism,
respect and humanity. We are confident that the next generation of
leadership will build upon our success using the same foundational
ingredients. We'll walk out with peace of mind, knowing that the
Company will be in good hands. It has been an immense pleasure and
a great honor to lead this exceptional team during these years and
we look forward to continuing to work with the new team as we will
remain on the Board of the Company with the privilege to continue
serving our customers, employees and shareholders."
SOURCE Foraco International SA
