Leadership

Steve Morriss
Chair of the Board of Directors
President, Engineering Services, United States, Asia Pacific and Mining & Metallurgy

Steve Morriss joined SNC-Lavalin on January 25th 2021 as President, Engineering Services, United States, Asia Pacific and Mining & Metallurgy.

With over 30 years of experience and global expertise, he has held executive and management positions in various organizations. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Morriss served as Group President, Design and Consulting Services, Americas at AECOM where he led the group’s technical services business, numbering more than 20,000 employees across the United States, Canada and Latin America. He had originally joined AECOM in 2011 as Chief Executive, Europe before being promoted to President of EMIA, which included the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. He held senior management and executive roles at Mouchel and Serco Assurance and also served as Chief Operating Officer at Serco Solutions. He started his career in 1988 at WS Atkins, now a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, as a civil and structural engineer. In his 15-year tenure, he worked as Project and Program Manager, General Manager in Advanced Technology and Managing Director at Atkins Nuclear. During his career, he has lived and worked in the UK, US and the Middle East.

Mr. Morriss is a graduate of Bristol University in Civil Engineering and served in the Royal Engineers and Royal Marines Reserve. His professional affiliations include the title of Honorary Colonel from the British Armed Forces and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Niklas Persson,
MD, Grid Integration, Hitachi Energy

Niklas Persson is the Managing Director of the Grid Integration Business Unit globally within Hitachi Energy.

He joined Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ predecessor in 1997 as an area sales manager for high voltage products in the Middle East, since then he has held several senior management positions with global responsibilities within the various businesses inside Power Grids. Directly prior to becoming Managing Director of Grid Integration, he was Head of the Company’s High Voltage Direct Current Business Unit.

Daniel Assandri,
Senior VP, Hitachi Energy

Daniel Assandri is currently Group Senior Vice President, responsible for Large Projects Business Development at Hitachi Energy, reporting to the President and CEO of Hitachi Energy, based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Daniel started his international career at Siemens in Germany and has held different senior management positions in Switzerland, Asia and Canada for ABB. Among others, he was Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of ABB Inc. in Canada, and member of the Executive Board of ABB in the Americas region. Daniel served also in China as Senior Vice President responsible for the Power Systems Division in North Asia, overseeing a significant expansion of the business portfolio in the region, and in Malaysia as Managing Director of the ABB Southeast Asia Power Generation Company, based in Kuala Lumpur.

Adrian Griffin
Senior VP – Commercial & Risk, Resources, SNC-Lavalin

Adrian Griffin is currently Senior Vice President – Commercial at SNC Lavalin for the USAAM sector, which includes engineering services in the US, Australia and Asia. This portfolio also includes mining and metallurgy, Linxon and the close out of several completed major projects.

Adrian started his international career at Kentz (acquired by SNC Lavalin in 2014) in South Africa, working on oil and gas, mining and power projects. He played a key role in the establishment and operation of a maintenance and shutdown business in Southern Africa and later led business development and operations activities in Scandinavia.  He held senior commercial leadership roles on energy and infrastructure projects and business units in Europe, South East Asia and Australia before being appointed in 2007 to the global commercial leadership role, which included extensive Middle East operations. Adrian was involved in several M&A transactions, mainly in North America and serves as a director of a number of SNC Lavalin subsidiaries and joint venture companies.

Stefan Reisacher
Chief Executive Officer

Stefan Reisacher is the Linxon’s Chief Executive Officer since September 2021; he previously led the company’s EMEA operations as Managing Director for the region.

Stefan’s background is in engineering; he has broad experience across the power industry, and held a number of senior roles at Alstom and, most recently, ABB before joining the Linxon senior management team in 2018. He is a graduate of the Technical University of Munich and holds an MBA from the University of Reading’s Henley Business School.

Dinesh Chadha
Deputy CEO, Managing Director – APAC & OPCs, ad interim Managing Director Hub Nordics

Dinesh Chadha leads our APAC Hub and India Engineering team; he is based in Bangalore, India. Dinesh joined Linxon from ABB’s Substation Projects and Transportation Business.

Hassan Merhi
Managing Director –  Middle East & Africa​

Hassan joined Linxon from ABB and is responsible for the MEA region. In his role Hassan leads our local Hub in all aspects of project management, planning, engineering, supply chain and construction functions.

Nicolas Sanloup
Managing Director Americas

Nicolas Sanloup leads Linxon America’s. Nicolas is an experienced leader in the Power Industry Business having held several executive roles in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America throughout his 20+ years experiences. His diverse background including High Voltage product manufacturing (GIS, AIS, DTB, Capacitors), construction experience of large turnkey projects (HVDC, Offshore, Substations GIS/AIS, FACTS) and executive leadership roles for Siemens and Hitachi/ABB helps consolidating Linxon position in the America’s market.

Nicolas holds a Master degree specialized in Mechanical and Industrial Management from the Ecole Catholique Des Arts et Métiers in France and he is based out of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Chris Goodwin
Chief Operations Officer (COO)​
Managing Director – UK, IE, Central Europe

Chris joined Linxon from SNC-Lavalin, where he most recently was managing a large and complex nuclear program. He has over 38 years of experience with 25 years of leadership roles in the fields of Nuclear Power, Oil & Gas, Chemicals and Industrial facilities. Chris’s experience spans the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and the Russian Federation, leading large operations and projects in complex, multi-national environments including joint ventures and consortia.
He holds a B.Eng (Hons) in Electrical Engineering from Leeds University, UK.

Christoffel Swanepoel
Head of HSE, Quality Sustainability  

As a member of our Senior Executive team, Chris leads Quality and Operational Excellence, HSE, Security and CSR and is based in Baden, Switzerland.

Throughout his career, Chris held several leadership positions in the Oil and Gas, Construction and Energy sectors. He has extensive remote site experience and previously worked as a Fire Service Commander, a paramedic on offshore rigs, and most recently as the Global HSE Manager for ABB’s Grid Integration BU.

Jean-Francois Vallee
Chief Finance Officer – Linxon

Jean-Francois joined Linxon from SNC-Lavalin, where since 2011, he held different roles within Corporate Finance and with the Hydro, Transmission and Distribution business units. Prior to joining SNC-Lavalin, he worked for a telecommunication company as well as for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, in Canada, Europe, USA and Africa, bringing 20 years of International experience to Linxon.

At Linxon, Jean-Francois heads the Accounting, Project Controls, Treasury and IT  functions.  Jean-Francois completed a Bachelor in Business Administration and second-cycle degree in Accounting from Laval University in Canada, and is a Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).

Kristina Holmstrom-Matses
Head of Communications

Kristina is responsible for all global communications and marketing communications at Linxon, covering internal and external content and channels. Kristina joined Linxon from ABB where she held several local and global Communication management roles, as well as positions within Human Resources management. She is based in Västerås, Sweden. Kristina is an experienced Communications Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the electrical and electronic manufacturing industry, holding skills in Marketing Management, International Project Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, Energy, and Crisis Communications. She has a Bachelor’s degree focused in Communication from Örebro university, Sweden.

Angel Guijarro
Chief Proposals Officer 

Angel leads our Proposals team and is responsible for offers preparation and negotiation. He joined Linxon from the former ABB EPC Group and is based in Madrid, Spain.

Mr. Guijarro brings more than 30 years of international executive experience in Oil&Gas, Power Generation and T&D, with deep understanding of global cultures and the energy sector. Prior to joining ABB in 2015 he has held various senior management positions throughout his career within EPC companies, where he was involved in all aspects of the project-construction business. He worked twenty-one years in Dragados (ACS Group), in 2003 he moved to Mexico as President and CEO of Dragados Industrial Mexico for over 7 years.

Angel holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from ICAI University, Spain; Master’s in Finance from ICADE Business School, Spain; General Management Program from IESE Business School, Spain.

Nicole Olsman
Chief Legal Officer

Nicole joined Linxon from the from SNC-Lavalin Infrastructure in Vancouver and is responsible for the legal, integrity and corporate secretarial functions. In her role, Nicole leads our team of in-house lawyers and contract managers.

Prior to joining the SNC-Lavalin family, Nicole was with AMEC (now Wood) as legal counsel and worked in Energy and Infrastructure at Canada’s largest law firm as an associate. She has a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, a Masters of Science from the University of Oxford as well as a Juris Doctor from Queen’s University.

David Lynch
Global Head of Commercial

David is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with extensive international experience managing the commercial function within Tier 1 contracting organizations. With a career spanning major projects in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia, David has first-hand knowledge of the working dynamics in all Linxon’s key geographical regions.  He joins from our parent company SNC-Lavalin.

David holds BSc (Hons) in Quantity Surveying and a Master’s Degree in Construction Law.

Cathy Carolan
Head of Human Resources

Cathy is responsible for the global HR function, including recruitment, compensation, and benefits and learning and development. Cathy joined Linxon from SNC-Lavalin Middle East, where she held the role of HR director across a number of divisions within the business. In addition Cathy has chaired the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion network for the region. Based in Qatar, Cathy has previously worked in a variety of industries including Oil & Gas, Project Management Engineering service and consultancy across Middle East, UK, Ireland and Europe. She holds a Bachelors and Master’s Degree in HR Management and is a Chartered member of Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).