St. Joe’s Youthful CEO Named Fluor President
Taking a step toward the eventual passage of corporate power to a younger generation, Fluor Corp. on Wednesday announced the promotion of John Wright, the youthful chief executive of its St. Joe Minerals Corp. subsidiary, to the post of president and chief operating officer.
Wright succeeds Buck Mickel, who joins Chick Cannon as a vice chairman of the Irvine engineering, mining and natural resources conglomerate. Mickel, was named president in 1984.
Wright, 43, is now considered by observers as a likely successor to Fluor Chairman David S. Tappan.
Tappan, who was named Fluor’s chairman in September, 1984, following the death of J. Robert Fluor, repeatedly has said he will abide by the company’s mandatory retirement policy and has pledged to retire after his 65th birthday, which will be in December, 1987.
Called Major Milestone
Neither Tappan nor Wright could be reached Wednesday.
“The selection of John Wright as president is a major milestone in Fluor’s management succession program,” Tappan said in a prepared statement. “John has shown outstanding leadership in managing the natural resources group through a difficult period.”
Fluor officials declined to confirm whether Wright is being groomed for the chairmanship, but a company spokesman said Wright “is of the generation that will follow Tappan, Mickel and Cannon.”
Although Mickel, 60, and Cannon, 63, could replace Tappan, both men are considered unlikely candidates.
“Fluor has been . . . talking about the need for young management talent” for several years, said Mark Altman, a securities analyst with the brokerage firm of Paine Webber in New York. “Certainly John Wright’s appointment at a young age to the chairmanship of St. Joe meant he’s been a candidate for the top management at Fluor.”
Because Tappan’s route to the top passed through the presidential suite, Wright is a good contender to take over when Tappan steps down, said Richard Rossi, vice president of research for Merrill Lynch in New York.
Wright joined St. Joe in 1971 after spending several years with International Paper Co., and he was promoted to the post of vice president of sales in 1975. Five years later he was named executive vice president and elected to St. Joe’s board. After Fluor acquired St. Joe in 1981, Wright was elected to Fluor’s board. Wright became St. Joe’s chairman and chief executive in 1982, a year after Fluor acquired the mining company for $2.2 billion.
Under Fluor’s dramatic restructuring plan, Wright has been given ample leeway in the reconfiguration of the Clayton, Mo., mining concern. Eager to sell off minority interests in all its operations, St. Joe last month spun off all of its gold mining operations into the newly formed St. Joe Gold Corp., of which 6.7% is publicly held.
“St. Joe has been operating in a pretty decentralized fashion since the acquisition,” said the Fluor spokesman. “So John Wright has been, in both title and function, the CEO of that company and has been instrumental in implementing the restructuring program.”
1985 Losses
Buffeted by slumping energy markets and declining demand for heavy engineering projects, Fluor posted a $633.3-million net loss during fiscal 1985, which ended Oct. 31. The 1985 loss, which included $400 million in asset write-downs, was a reversal from net earnings of $1 million during fiscal 1984. Revenue during 1985 was $4.16 billion, down from $4.3 billion a year earlier.
Although a new generation is certain to assume command of Fluor when Tappan retires, industry observers say the company’s long-term plans are already in place and few major changes are likely to occur when the new generation takes over.
