Invensys plc yesterday said it has hired Paulett Eberhart, a former Electronic Data Systems (EDS) executive, as president and CEO of Invensys Process Systems (IPS), replacing Mike Caliel, who resigned last June.
Eberhart, 52, most recently served as president of EDS's Americas group -- the IT services company's largest business unit -- before retiring for personal reasons in 2004. Among her top priorities, Eberhart said, is to grow IPS's solutions services footprint and expand the unit's presence in emerging geographies such as China and the Middle East.
Invensys Process Systems group, which is among the diversified company's best performing divisions, has been operating under the leadership of interim president Ken Brown for the last seven months. Brown, who was one of three internal candidates vying for the job, will assume his former position as general manager of the Measurements & Instruments business unit, Invensys said.
In an interview last night with Managing Automation, Eberhart cited similarities between Invensys and EDS, even though the two companies come from divergent corners of the IT space. EDS is a top-tier systems integration and consulting firm that addresses business process transformation and technology management needs across nearly all industry segments. In contrast, Invensys is focused exclusively on manufacturing control and process automation technologies.
"There are some issues that transcend all industries," Eberhart said, pointing to the role third parties can play in helping customers become more operationally efficient and effective. "My role is to take Invensys to the next level."
Eberhart, who is relocating from Dallas to Foxboro, MA, and will report directly to Invensys CEO Ulf Henriksson, was attracted to IPS's strong industry heritage and cohesive corporate culture. "As I talked to people inside and outside of the company I saw a company with strong product capabilities ... and [making] good progress in its operational improvements," she said. Having put its financing issues and debt restructuring behind it, "I saw a company poised to really focus on what I'd call growth strategies."
With only three days at IPS under her belt, Eberhart admitted she doesn't have all the answers, but she already has a partial plan in place. She spent the weekend talking with Ken Brown and determining IPS's top goals for 2007. Those goals: "I'd say continued unification of product lines for IPS ... and [doing more with] something that is near and dear to my heart, which is growing the services footprint in solutions consulting."
Eberhart is an accountant by training, but said her passion is operations as well as sales and marketing. She began her career at EDS in 1978 and worked her way up through the finance organization until she crossed over into operational management as president of the Solutions Consulting Group and then eventually president of the company's Americas unit.
While she is accustomed to change -- having lived through EDS's continuous transformation over the years -- Eberhart joins IPS at a time when the company must make good on a vision outlined by her predecessor, Mike Caliel.
Caliel did most of the heavy lifting during his three-year tenure as president of IPS. He was responsible for melding disparate Invensys businesses into one cohesive model and was at the helm when Invensys introduced its InFusion enterprise control system, a platform for integrating automation and information systems. In June, Caliel was hired as president and CEO of Houston-based Integrated Electrical Services Inc., a personal decision he made in order to work closer to his home, also in Houston, Invensys insiders told Managing Automation at the time.
It is the team-based structure that Caliel organized that Eberhart is excited about. "There is a strong focus within IPS around employees, teamwork, and the importance of employee development," she said. "I'm strong on teamwork," Eberhart added, noting that she encourages employees to get issues out on the table and talk about them as a group.
In addition, her boss, Henriksson, has his sights set on strategy and understanding the customer, she noted. To that end, Eberhart plans to spend a lot of time meeting with customers to better understand their product and service needs.
The Process Systems group and the Controls group are the two highest performing Invensys divisions. IPS, for example, posted revenues of €190 million in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, 2006, representing a 9% increase from the like period of 2005. Third quarter results will be announced next month.