Esa Ikaheimonen announcement

Averda, the leading end-to-end waste management company in emerging markets, has appointed Esa Ikaheimonen as a Non-Executive Director. Mr Ikaheimonen will sit on the Board and be Chairman of the Audit & Finance Committee.

Mr Ikaheimonen is an experienced executive and non-executive director at both public and private companies with a wealth of expertise in the oil and gas and oilfield services sectors.

During the past 30 years, Mr Ikaheimonen has held senior leadership positions at a number of leading operators including Royal Dutch Shell, Transocean Plc, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and Genel Energy Plc, the oil exploration and production company.

Mr Ikaheimonen currently sits as CFO/CCO and Executive Director at Genel Energy Plc, as non-executive Chairman of Lamor Corporation, a leading provider of environmental and oil spill response services and as Senior Independent Director at Independent Oil & Gas Plc, a gas development specialist. He has previously served Ahlstrom Plc, a global materials manufacturer and Vantage International Plc, both companies as a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee, as well as Transocean Partners LLC as the Chairman.

Mr Ikaheimonen obtained a Master of Laws degree from the University of Turku in Finland and joined Shell in 1990, eventually becoming Regional CFO for Africa in 2007. In 2009, Mr Ikaheimonen joined Seadrill Plc, a leading offshore drilling company, where he oversaw a number of successful M&A transactions, multiple large scale capital raisings and two IPO’s.

Having joined Transocean Plc in 2012, Mr Ikaheimonen led a major restructuring exercise and a $1.5bn IPO of Transocean Partners.

Since joining UK listed Genel Energy Plc in 2017, Mr Ikaheimonen has driven a major turnaround of the business. Genel is now seen as a leading value and cash generator in its sector with a transformed balance sheet, portfolio and performance.

Esa Ikaheimonen commented:

“I am joining Averda at a very exciting time for the business, as it looks to build on recent expansion and take advantage of the opportunities presented by a growing global population and increasing levels of urbanisation. I look forward to working closely with the rest of the Board in support of Averda’s ambition to provide the highest levels of responsible waste management throughout the emerging world.”

Malek Sukkar, CEO of Averda, said:

“2019 was a year of transformation at Averda as we focused on our operating systems following many years of rapid expansion. Esa’s expertise in running companies with global operations will be invaluable as we continue to grow our geographic footprint in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In addition to our geographic expansion, we are increasing the breadth of our service offering by moving into more technically challenging types of waste, such as those found in the natural resources sector.

Esa has an understanding of the oil and gas industries that will be invaluable in this regard.

We look forward to welcoming Esa onto Averda’s Board and working closely with him as we continue to grow the business.