Capita chief executive Jon Lewis to retire from outsourcing giant

Jon Lewis, the ‘turnaround king’ who helped revive Capita following a series of public scandals, has announced his intention to retire.

The outsourcing giant said Lewis, 61, will stand down as chief executive towards the end of 2023 but remain with the business until July next year.

Lewis initially joined as CEO in December 2017, replacing Andy Parker after he departed amid a succession of profit warnings, debt-laden overexpansion and the group’s ousting from the FTSE 100.

Departure: Capita said Jon Lewis (pictured) will stand down as chief executive later this year

Capita’s reputation had further suffered from bungled contracts, such as the delayed installation of an IT upgrade for London’s congestion charge, missing British Army recruitment targets, and catching too few TV licence fee evaders.

Brought in as a troubleshooter, Lewis had previously spearheaded successful transformations at engineering services businesses Landmark Graphics Corporation, Halliburton and Amec Foster Wheeler.

Following his arrival at Capita, the firm’s share price hit a 15-year low when it axed a dividend, declared another profit warning and launched a £700million emergency rights issue.

But the group also began selling off a significant chunk of its operations, slashing staff numbers from 73,000 to approximately 50,000 and becoming more high-tech-focused.

Though the company’s turnover has continued to drop steadily, its net debts have plummeted from more than £1.1billion to around £85million at the end of last year.

It has also won some major government contracts, including one worth £925million to provide training services to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

David Lowden, chairman of Capita, said Lewis ‘has shown outstanding leadership and determination in rebuilding Capita from the ground up’.

He added: ‘It is now a purpose-led business which Jon has refocused, strengthened and returned to growth, while rebuilding client trust and improving colleague engagement. He should be rightly proud of his achievements.’

Lewis’s departure comes a few months after it warned that a cyber-attack, which hit some of its biggest clients, could cost the group £20million in turnover.

The Welshman will be replaced by Adolfo Hernandez, the vice president of global telecommunications for cloud computing platform Amazon Web Services.

Hernandez has had around three decades of experience working in the technology industry, including as chief executive of translation service provider SDL until its acquisition in 2020 by rival RWS Group.

He has also worked for French communications equipment firm Alcatel-Lucent, Sun-Microsystems, and spent much of his early career at IBM.

Hernandez said: ‘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.’

Capita shares were up 0.9 per cent, or 0.26p, at 28.2p on Monday morning.

They remain far below their peak of around 800p in mid-2015.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk