Dallas-based Jacobs announced Thursday that Steve Demetriou, the CEO of the international engineering, construction and procurement company for seven years, is stepping down from the top job in January but will stay with the company as executive chair of the board.
Jacobs current president and chief operating officer Bob Pragada will succeed Demetriou as CEO also and join the company’s board of directors. The moves take effect Jan. 24, Jacobs said in a Thursday press release.
Demetriou, age 64, will serve as executive chair for at least two years, and the board will advise Pragada, 54, on strategy and capital deployment, Jacobs said in the release.
In the release, Jacobs lead independent director Chris Thompson called Demetriou “the architect of a visionary portfolio transformation that led to accelerated growth at Jacobs through the acquisition of CH2M [a rival Department of Energy contractor], the sale of our oil, chemicals and mining businesses, and the majority investment in PA Consulting.”
The outgoing CEO’s aggressive leadership is credited by Jacobs with an approximately $11 billion increase to Jacobs’ market capitalization and a 236% total shareholder return, according to the release.
Demetriou’s total compensation, including salary, bonus and stock options for 2021 amounted to more than $16 million, according to the latest Jacobs proxy material. Pragada’s total compensation for the same period was less than $10 million.
In 2016, Pragada began his second stint at Jacobs. After holding several management jobs over a nine-year period through 2009, Pragada returned to Jacobs six years ago to become president of the global Industrial and Buildings & Infrastructure lines of business. In 2019, Pragada was named president and chief ops officer.
“I want to thank Steve for his partnership and guidance over the past seven years,” Pragada said. “He is an incredible leader who inspires all around him and leaves a tremendous legacy at Jacobs.”
Jacobs companies are currently lead partners in ventures cleaning up nuclear contamination at the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The latter is a New York state-owned property that DOE is charged with remediating.
