Vysus Group, the global technical and regulatory consultancy, has announced key changes to its Group leadership team as part of its transition to become a standalone, consultancy-focused business.
The changes will see David Clark step down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after three and a half years in the role. Mr Clark, who will remain on the board of directors in a non-executive role, will be replaced by Thomas Aas Saethre who is currently Senior Vice President of Vysus Consulting.
Similarly, Chief Financial Officer, Geoff Morrison, and Human Resources Director, Jodie Gilles, will transition out of the business in the coming months.
The announcement follows the completion of a series of structured divestments of non-core businesses over the last three years to fully align Vysus to its longer-term vision and road map as a focused technical advisory consultancy supporting the global the energy, complex industrial, and grid infrastructure markets. The reshaping of the company’s leadership team is the next step in delivering its longer-term growth strategy and service offering as the organisation moves from a multi-business group to a standalone consulting business.
Albert Farrant, Founding Partner at Vysus Group’s owner Inspirit Capital, said: “We would like to thank David and the senior team for their leadership on the carve-out and creation of Vysus Group over the last three and half years and the subsequent growth and successful divestment of the non-core services lines.
“David will continue to provide his domain and market expertise at board level, as a non-executive director, as we take the Consulting business forward in its new structure. Since joining the business in January 2023, Thomas has provided fantastic leadership across the Consulting team and we look forward to working closely with him in the months ahead to continue the drive and expansion of the consulting business.”
Vysus was created in 2020 from a carve-out from Lloyd’s Register. Under Mr Clark’s stewardship, the business executed a major turnaround whilst reacting to the impact of COVID across the wider energy market. Completing the transition to a new, fully independent global organisation through the first half of 2021 included the development of the new brand, purpose and restatement of its longer-term strategy and vision for the business.
Mr Clark commented “I am incredibly proud of what the whole team has achieved over the last few years and the fantastic success we have made so far in establishing and building the Vysus Group brand and business amid COVID and challenging macro market conditions. I am very thankful for the support I received from the entire team on this journey, and I look forward to working with Thomas and the new Vysus leadership in the months and years ahead as they drive the next stage of growth of the remaining consulting business.”
A key strand of Vysus’ strategy has been to divest non-core services including its Scandinavian-based Transportation business, its US-based survey and power engineering organisation and in late 2022, the sale of Senergy Wells.
With the completion of the sale of ModuSpec on 1st March 2024, Vysus Group now retains its core consulting business with the strategy to support customers with its unique expertise and experience base across the energy (O&G, Renewables, Nuclear), transition sector (hydrogen/ammonia, CCUS, storage), complex industrials (petrochemicals, pharmaceutical, process industry) and grid infrastructure markets.
While recent changes to the business have seen a short-term reduction in overall headcount (the company now has a team of 325 people globally including 275 employees and approximately 50 consultants), it is actively recruiting technical specialists and expects to appoint at least 40 people by the end of the year.
Thomas Aas Saethre, who will become CEO from 1 May 2024 added: “It’s been a privilege to work with David, Geoff, and Jodie as they and the leadership team steered the company to the strong position it is now in.
“We are now ideally positioned to support the energy, industrial and grid infrastructure markets as they continue to navigate an ever more complex and integrated world. There are significant global opportunities for Vysus and I’m confident we have the right structure and expert team to capitalise on those opportunities.”
Vysus leverages its deep domain and risk expertise to help companies navigate the increasingly complex, integrated energy landscape to minimise risk and optimise performance across the asset lifecycle.
The approach has seen the company strengthen its offering to support the Energy Transition by significantly reducing its reliance on oil and gas while expanding its market share across the renewables, low carbon, grid and complex process industries. By last year it had already achieved close to 60% of its revenue coming from non-oil and gas markets and is on track to hit its 70% target in the next two years.
Vysus has a permanent presence in 16 countries and is active in all key global energy hubs.
David Clark, left, with Thomas Aas Saethre