Capita has announced that its CEO, Jon Lewis, is to retire by the end of 2023 and will be replaced Adolfo Hernandez, vice president for global telecommunications at AWS.
Lewis will remain with Capita until July 2024 to ensure a smooth transition.
The announcement ends a period of leadership uncertainty for Capita. Lewis had informed the board in 2022 that he intended to depart, which started a succession-planning process.
Hernandez will join Capita, having worked for Amazon Web Services for almost three years. Before AWS, he worked for Sun Microsystems and Alcatel-Lucent.
Lewis took on the role of Capita CEO in December 2017, having served just over a year as CEO at Amec Foster Wheeler. Before that, he spent just over ten years at Halliburton.
As well as overseeing the group's transformation, Lewis was also at the helm during several incidents. The outsourcing firm said in May that it expected to incur $25 million in costs in the wake of a cyber attack.
The turnaround in the company's fortunes has been marked during Lewis’s tenure. A 10% decline in revenue from Capita Experience in 2021 became a 0.9% rise in 2022, while adjusted revenue increased by 2.4% to £2.8 billion. 2021’s growth was 0.1%.
It also reported 50% of its pipeline was from growth with existing and new clients.
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David Lowden, chairman of Capita, said the company was delighted to have secured Hernandez. He said: “Adolfo has a great track record in accelerating revenue growth driven by digital services”.
Lowden also paid tribute to Lewis and his decision to delay his retirement following March’s cyber incident.
Lewis thanked Capita’s 50,000-strong workforce and commended them “for their hard work, commitment, and professionalism” during his time as CEO.
Hernandez expressed excitement to join Capita, saying: “The Group is in strong financial health and well positioned for accelerated revenue growth in both its public service and customer experience markets, with a healthy pipeline of future opportunities”.
While half-year results are not expected until 4 August, Capita described trading in the first six months of the year as “in line with company expectations”.
In its most recent set of financial results, it said it expected further acceleration of revenue growth in Capita Public Service and continued revenue stability in Capita Experience.
