Arcadis appoints Kamiran Ibrahim & Felipe Lima as regional CEOs
Kamiran Ibrahim and Felipe Lima have both been promoted to the rank of regional CEO. Ibrahim takes the helm of Arcadis Middle East while Lima assumes the same role at Arcadis Latin America. The appointments come after a recent executive overhaul saw a new global CEO appointed earlier in the year.
Following the departure of former CEO Neil McArthur late in 2016 after the engineering firm underwent a sharp 34% fall in third-quarter operating income before interest, taxation and depreciation, Arcadis entered into a continued period of managerial change in 2017. Earlier in the year, the consultancy confirmed Keppel Land Group CEO Wee Gee Ang as a new member of their Supervisory Board, while Peter Oosterveer was installed as the new global CEO of the organisation. With the additional approval of Kamiran Ibrahim and Felipe Lima as regional CEOs now, Arcadis have continued their bid to change their fortunes with the injection of fresh talent to their executive team.
Kamiran Ibrahim has been with Arcadis since 2015, joining the firm initially as its Managing Director-Qatar and Global Business Leader for Water-ME, before taking the Managing Directorship of the consultancy’s UAE & Oman division. He was previously at Hyder Consulting for more than 12 years, in his most recent role as the Managing Director of the Utilities Sector in the Middle East, with earlier roles including Regional Business Director of Tunnels & Geotechnics and Technical Director/Principal Engineer.
Ibrahim has been appointed the CEO of Arcadis’ Middle East operation, he succeeds Graham Reid, who was in the role from the beginning of last year – furthering a trend discovered by a recent Strategy& survey, which revealed the median length of service for CEOs had been reduced to a term of 4.8 years, partly due to increased public scrutiny of corporate behaviour. Ibrahim brings more than 30 years of experience in business to the role, ten of which have been in the Middle East. He joins the firm’s global Executive Committee.
Commenting on the change of leadership, Stephan Ritter, a Member of the Executive Board at Arcadis said, "We are grateful for Graham Reid's contribution to the integration of the activities in the Middle East and for building a resilient business in challenging times. Graham led the region with strong focus on clients and successful project execution. We wish Graham all the best in his new role.”
On the new appointment, Ritter added, "Having previously also led our Qatar activities, we consider Dr. Kamiran Ibrahim a natural replacement, and I am delighted that he has accepted the CEO role in the Middle East.”
Felipe Lima joined Arcadis at the start of the year as a Managing Director for the firm’s Brazilian operations. Prior to taking that position, Lima was previously the President & CEO of construction firm Promon Engenharia for three and a half years, having also been the CFO Citigroup for nine years, later becoming the company’s Vice President. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas.
Lima takes on the role of CEO of Arcadis Latin America from his predecessor Manoel da Silva leaves to join Arcadis Logos Energia SA, 49.99% owned by Arcadis NV, as its new CEO. Lima meanwhile, brings extensive leadership experience to the firm, including at various multinational organisation; he was brought on board at Acadis to succeed da Silva.
Commenting on the new appointment, Mary Ann Hopkins, the Arcadis Executive Board Member responsible for the Americas, said, “We highly value the contribution of Manoel da Silva to Arcadis over the years as he has been instrumental in growing our Brazilian company from a 300-people firm in early 2000 to over 3,000 people as recently as 2 years ago. Manoel and his team have worked tirelessly since that time to adjust the business and cost structure to the economic realities in the region."
