Two Fluor vice presidents are leaving the company, and all executives are temporarily taking a 20% cut in their base pay, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the April 10 notice, Fluor announced the separation from employment of Executive Vice President for Systems and Supply Chain Ray Barnard and Executive Vice President, Energy and Chemicals—Business Development and Strategy Jose Bustamante.
Both men are scheduled to exit leave the Irving, Texas-based engineering and construction multinational on May 22.
Barnard has been in his current post since 2014, after serving as senior vice president and group executive for information technology and project execution services. Prior to joining the company in 2002, Barnard held management posts with TradeMC, ENSCO Corp., and IBM, according to his profile on the Fluor website.
Bustamante joined Fluor in 1990, and has worked in executive roles internationally including a stint from 2009 to 2013 as head of Middle East operations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The same SEC disclosure says Fluor executive officers have “voluntarily agreed” to a temporary 20% reduction in base pay in response to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The 12 members of the Fluor Board of Directors have similarly agreed to a temporary 20% reduction in their cash retainer fees.
The Fluor filing does not say if the executives’ departure is connected with cost-cutting. A quick Internet search indicated the two Fluor vice presidents each earned more than $2.5 million in 2018.
A company spokesman declined to elaborate on the SEC filing.
Fluor established a global COVID-19 task force in January, and is following guidelines from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in order to help protect employees, according to a statement on the company website.
In February, Fluor issued only partial earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2020, as it is under investigation by the SEC due to questions over its second-quarter 2019 financial results. Fluor has not said when it expects to file the full earnings report.
Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is the management contractor for the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The company also manages cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory and partners with BWX Technologies for remediation at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Fluor is also part of an Amentum-led team that in December was awarded a potential 10-year contract for Central Plateau remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The contract award is subject of a bid protest.
