G4S chief executive is latest to leave after Olympic failure
Finance director Almanza to step into top job as Buckles departs
NICK Buckles, the chief executive of security giant G4S, is to step down 10 months after the company suffered staffing problems at the 2012 London Olympics.
Mr Buckles joins David Taylor Smith, G4S’s for mer chief operating officer – later hired by Scotti s h temporary power company Aggreko – and Ian Horseman Sewell, managing director of global events, on the list of G4S executives who have left the company since last summer.
Mr Buckles’s departure was finally sealed by recent poor performance, which saw shares slump earlier this month.
Yesterday, the stock gained 0.9p or 0.4% to close at 251.9p.
G4S chairman John Connolly said: “Nick Buckles made a massive contribution to the group over a 28-year career.”
Mr Buckles was appointed chief executive of Securicor in 2002 before it combined with Group 4 Falck to become G4S.
He was G4S’s deputy chief executive from its formation in 2004 and was made chief executive in July 2005.
Mr Buckles, who was paid a total of £1.2 million in 2012, will receive a £1.2m pay-off, due to his contractual notice period of 12 months, when he departs at the end of the month.
He will be succeeded by Ashley Almanza, who will take up the role on June 1 having only been appointed finance director on May 1.
Mr Almanza is a former finance director of BG Group.
Stuart Curl, the group’s regional finance director for the UK, Ireland and Africa, has been appointed acting finance director.
G4S also announced that Eddie Aston, chief executive for global sectors at logistics company DHL would join the group on July 8 to take up the new role of chief operating officer. The post was created following the board review of the Olympic contract last year.
The review in September spared Mr Buckles, failing to find any significant shortcomings in his handling of the contract.
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regional managing director at Glasgow-based Aggreko, and Mr Horseman Sewell left the company at this time.
G4S was appointed official security services provider for London 2012 in March 2011 and nine months later had its contract to provide 2000 security staff increased to 10,400.
But in July 2012 the company admitted it would be unable to provide the number of security guards promised.
Extra military personnel had to be called in to fill the gap left by G4S’s failure to supply enough staff for the £284 million contract. Mr Buckles admitted to MPs this was a “humiliating shambles for the company”.
Pressure has intensified on Mr Buckles in recent weeks, after a poor trading update caused shares to slump by more than 13% in a single day.
G4S said that weak European markets and pricing pressure on its cash transportation arm in the UK and Ireland had squeezed margins.
Mr Almanza said: “G4S is a great global business with enormous long term potential and I am looking forward to working with a highly experienced and capable management team as we take the business forward.”
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