EFFECTIVELY A YEAR after North America’s New Flyer Industries (NFI) took over UK-based bus giant Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL), the latter will have a new president and managing director effective 30 September, 2020, the company has announced.
Current ADL managing director for Asia Pacific Paul Davies will assume these new roles, which will time with current ADL chief executive Colin Robertson’s appointment to the NFI board as vice chair, following him “spearheading ADL’s success for 13 years”, it states.
According to ADL, as part of NFI’s acquisition last year, Robertson agreed to remain in his current role until May, 2020, which has now been extended to 30 September, 2020. This extension will allow for a period of transition to “…provide a seamless handover to Paul Davies and to ensure business continuity when Paul returns to his native Scotland in July, 2020.”
Davies joined Alexander Dennis in 1997 and has more than 25 years of automotive and rail industry experience, ADL explains. As regional managing director based in Hong Kong, Davies led the company’s long-term profitable growth in the Asia-Pacific region for the past 20 years, it states.
Upon being appointed to the NFI board in September, 2020, in the new role as vice chair Robertson will assist board chair, the Honourable Brian Tobin O.C. P.C., and Paul Soubry, president and CEO of NFI, in supporting NFI’s international growth, ADL explains.
Robertson draws on more than 30 years of operational and senior leadership experience in manufacturing, including his 13 years as chief executive of ADL, the company states.
“Leading ADL has been exciting and extremely rewarding. I am fiercely proud of what has been achieved through the hard work of the entire team and the collaborative partnerships we’ve developed with our suppliers and customers,” Robertson said.
“I know the company will be in fantastic hands. Paul has been a key member of the executive team and lives and breathes ADL’s mission and values. With his thorough understanding of our business and the wider industry, I have every confidence that Paul will bring further success to ADL,” he added.
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Davies commented: “I’ve been very fortunate to have worked for Colin for the past 13 years and I am deeply honoured to have been selected to take on the challenge of continuing the amazing journey that we’ve experienced under his leadership.”
“I look forward to continue working with the NFI and ADL teams and our partners to provide world-class transport solutions that deliver for our customers,” he said.
NFI chair, The Hon. Brian Tobin, O.C. P.C. said: “The NFI board is thrilled that Colin Robertson has agreed to join our board as vice chair, and I look forward to working with him in assisting and overseeing NFI Group’s pursuit of added competitiveness and further international growth.”
Paul Soubry, president and CEO of NFI, said: “I have known Colin for nearly a decade and constantly sought a way to bring our two companies together and in the process gained a tremendous amount of respect for his business expertise and strategic vision.”
“Colin’s vast manufacturing background, experience and deep knowledge of the global bus and coach markets will continue to serve NFI well,” Soubry explained further.
“I’m also very excited to work with Paul, who has been mentored by Colin for several years as they grew ADL’s presence to be a market leader in the Asia-Pacific Region. Paul is exactly the right kind of leader to drive the next chapter of ADL as part of NFI.”
STEPPING UP
Davies’s current role as ADL’s managing director for the Asia Pacific region will pass to Steve Rose, who joins Alexander Dennis from Cummins, where he most recently had been regional operations director, Taiwan and Mongolia, and general manager, Hong Kong.
Rose has more than 40 years’ experience in manufacturing, operations and aftermarket support, ADL confirms.
ABOUT NFI
With 9,000 team members operating from more than 50 facilities across 10 countries, NFI is a leading independent global bus manufacturer providing a comprehensive suite of mass transportation solutions under brands: New Flyer (heavy-duty transit buses), Alexander Dennis Limited (single and double-deck buses), Plaxton (motor coaches), MCI (motor coaches), ARBOC (low-floor cutaway and medium-duty buses), and NFI Parts, it states.
NFI buses and motor coaches incorporate the widest range of drive systems available including: clean diesel, natural gas, diesel-electric hybrid, and zero-emission electric (trolley, battery, and fuel cell), it adds.
In total, NFI now supports more than 105,000 buses and coaches currently in service around the world, it says.
ABOUT ADL
Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of double-deck buses and is also the UK’s largest bus and coach manufacturer, it states.
ADL offers single- and double-deck vehicles under the brands of Alexander Dennis and Plaxton, and has more than 31,000 vehicles in service in the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and the United States, it confirms.
Photography: courtesy ADL