Board of directors

Luis Araujo

With over 38 years of experience in the energy and oil and gas industries, Luis has worked on a portfolio of advisory roles, with global experience in project management, engineering and sales, most recently as CEO of Aker Solutions from 2014 to 2020. Prior to his appointment as CEO, he held Regional President and Executive Vice-President roles in the company since 2011. Prior to his period with Aker Solutions, he was CEO of Wellstream Brazil, a pipeline products company with a wide range of pipe solutions, currently part of Baker Hughes GE.

Fréderic Castrec

Fred is Chief Executive Officer of CRC Evans and an executive director of the board, bringing a wealth of experience from across the welding services industry, primarily in the offshore and spoolbase pipeline construction sectors. He started his career in 1996 with Serimer Dasa and held various operations and engineering leadership positions. In 2011 he was appointed as Managing Director of Serimax. Most recently, he was CEO of Pipeline Technique Limited and executive director of the board. Fred is a qualified mechanical engineer and welding engineer, with a strong commitment to occupational health and safety.

Martin Somerville

In addition to sitting on the board of CRC Evans, Martin is a Managing Director at Bluewater and has 20 years of private equity and M&A experience in the energy sector. He has a focus on companies within the energy service, technology and infrastructure markets. Martin is currently a board member of 3T Energy Group, GES Group, Unique Group, ROVOP and IMServ.

Marcello Stroppa

Marcello currently serves on the boards of Kent, CRC Evans, Jernbro and Fox Innovation & Technologies. He is a Managing Director at Bluewater and brings extensive private equity experience alongside his M&A track record with Rothschild & Co where he focused on the energy services and electricity generation sectors.

Ben MacKay

Ben is the Chief Operating Officer for CRC Evans (CRCE) and is a member of the board. He brings over 30 years experience in the offshore pipeline sector, beginning his career as a welder with Umax Pipeline contractors and holding a number of leadership positions prior to becoming the company’s Operations Director. He later held the position of Managing Director of CRC Evans Offshore where he  grew the business stream to achieve revenues of over $100m. In his most recent role Ben was the COO of Pipeline Technique Limited and member of the board.

Phil Lanigan

Phil is the Chief Finance Officer for CRC Evans (CRCE) and a member of the board. A chartered accountant by profession, Phil has held the position of CFO for a number of private-equity owned and listed businesses, several of which operated on a global basis. His sector experiences include the oil and gas, nuclear and defense and construction sectors. Over the course of his career he has played a significant role in a number of high profile corporate transactions. He is also a member of the Institute of Taxation. In his most recent role Phil was CFO of Pipeline Technique and a member of the board.

David Williams

David has 17 years experience in private equity with 3i plc., and previously served as an Executive Chairman at Shepherd Building Group (owner of the Portakabin Group). He held the roles of COO, and then CEO of Logstor SAS in Denmark, and Chairman and CEO of Serimax SAS.

Carol Chesney

Carol was appointed to the CRC Evans Board as an independent non-executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and was formerly the Group Financial Controller, and served as Company Secretary of Halma plc.  Carol is a past audit committee chair at both Renishaw plc and Biffa plc. Carol is currently a non-executive director of Hunting plc and IQE plc, both listed entities, and non-executive director of PE-owned Imagination Technologies Group Limited.