ABM on Jan. 12 announced that its board of directors has named Executive Vice President Scott Salmirs to succeed current President and CEO Henrik Slipsager, effective March 31, 2015. The board and Slipsager together determined that because of the company's recent strong performance, its depth of talent, and the completion of its reorganization and re-branding, it is the appropriate time to effect a leadership transition as a part of the board's succession planning.
Salmirs, 52, has been appointed to the ABM board of directors effective immediately. While Slipsager, 60, has agreed to stay on in a consulting role with ABM following the transition through Sept. 30, his term on the board will end on March 4, at the company's Annual Meeting of Shareholders.
Salmirs joined the company in 2003 and currently serves as executive vice president of ABM and has global responsibility for ABM's aviation division and all international activities. Until December 2014, Salmirs led ABM's Onsite services division focused on the Northeast. Prior to ABM, Salmirs was a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers responsible for their North American Facilities Group. He previously served in leadership positions in the Facilities Groups at Goldman Sachs and CBRE.
Since November 2000, under Slipsager's leadership, ABM has transformed from a company with annual revenues of $1.8 billion and approximately 60,000 employees into a leading provider of facility solutions today, with revenues of more than $5.0 billion and approximately 118,000 employees in over 300 offices throughout the United States and various international locations.
"ABM now has the scope, scale, human capital, industry expertise, and proven technology to deliver enterprise-wide facility solutions around the globe," said Slipsager. "Given his industry expertise, his understanding of our clients and vertical markets, and his leadership role in building ABM for more than a decade, Scott is the right leader at the right time. He has the unique blend of experience and skills to lead the company."
"We are very pleased to have an internal leader with Scott's expertise and capabilities to step right in and move the company to develop the many opportunities for growth," said Maryellen Herringer, chairman of the ABM board of directors. "He already has provided substantial value to the stakeholders of ABM, and we are confident that he will contribute even more in the years ahead."
"We would like to extend our enormous thanks to Henrik for all he has done to help successfully transform this company," Herringer continued. "His tenure marks ABM's greatest period of expansion and growth - in revenue, employees, capabilities, markets, vertical markets and geography. We wish him all the best in the future."
"I am honored to lead this exceptional organization and to build on the strong foundation established by Henrik and the management team. Now, from a position of strength, is the right time to take ABM to the next level." said Salmirs. "The opportunities are enormous. Partnering with the talented professionals throughout the ABM organization, I am dedicated to serving our clients and committed to driving shareholder value."
Salmirs holds an MBA in Finance from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and a BS in Business-Economics from the State University of New York College at Oneonta. He is on the board of the Outreach Project, an organization that promotes the rehabilitation of high school age drug users, and is a founding board member of Donate Eight, a group focused on increasing the number of organ donors in New York State.
