Stephen Kadenacy on June 30 formally ended his nearly two-year tenure as president and chief operating officer of global engineering firm AECOM, one of the major contractors at Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country.
Kadenacy has been with AECOM for nearly a decade, starting as senior vice president for finance in 2008 and rising to president and COO in September 2015, his LinkedIn profile shows. He will receive a lump-sum severance payment of more than $2.6 million, along with 154,450 shares of AECOM common stock worth just shy of $5 million as of June 22, according to an 8-K form filed last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC document did not cite the reason for Kadenacy’s exit. In a June 28 press release, the company said only that “Mr. Kadenacy’s departure is not related to any adverse change in the Company’s business.”
“We value the contributions Steve has made at AECOM over the last 10 years and wish him well in his future endeavors,” AECOM Chairman and CEO Michael Burke said in the release.
Kadenacy could not be reached for comment by deadline.
Engineering and construction industry veteran Randall Wotring officially replaced Kadenacy as chief operating officer last Saturday. Wotring came to the company via its 2014 acquisition of URS Corp., where he was president of Federal Services.
Wotring most recently was AECOM’s group president for Technical and Operational Services, where he expanded the company’s business with the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Homeland Security, the press release says. He also oversees the advancement of AECOM’s nuclear decommissioning services.
AECOM plays a major role in operations and remediation of a number of DOE sites. It is the lead partner in Savannah River Remediation, liquid waste management prime at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and has confirmed it is seeking the follow-on contract for the work. AECOM also partners in management and operations of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; it has not publicly discussed its intentions for the follow-on Los Alamos procurement as the September 2018 expiration of the current contract approaches.
The company is chalking up wins in the commercial nuclear decommissioning sphere as well, last year partnering with Salt Lake City-based nuclear services provider EnergySolutions to secure a $1 billion contract to become general contractor for the decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.
The global decommissioning market, which AECOM values at more than $200 billion, offers a “tremendous set of opportunities,” Burke said during an earnings conference call in February.
Wotring will continue to report directly to Burke. AECOM has not publicly discussed its plans for selecting a new president.
In its most recently reported quarter, AECOM earned about $4.4 billion in revenue, with net income landing at $102 million.
