Chief Executive Officer at The Environmental & Engineering Group

The Organisation 

The Environmental & Engineering Group (‘E&E’) was established in 2023 as part of the merger of Marlin Environmental Services (‘Marlin’) and Yellowstone Environmental Solutions (‘Yellowstone’). After 12 years of partnership,  the businesses formed E&E group to provide additional internal support and to increase service levels for existing and new customers.  

The Role 

The Managing Directors of Marlin and Yellowstone, James Neno and Russell Lempa, along with the board, decided to appoint a CEO to lead the newly formed group.  This appointment would support the board with their growth ambitions and would set the strategic direction for the group. 

The Search 

For this appointment, E&E required more than a safe pair of hands to lead the business.  Colin Roope of Berwick Partners was selected to lead the search for a proven MD/CEO with broad transformational experience leading ambitious organisations who had significantly scaled.  The search targeted individuals from within the Environmental Engineering and Waste Management sectors who had led significant growth journeys.  The search was thorough with a total talent pool of 139 individuals; of which 39 were interviewed by Sam Yates, the exclusive researcher for the project.  A long list of 16 candidates were then interviewed by Colin Roope, Associate Partner, who led the project, before the 5 most suitable candidates were selected to meet the board of directors. 

Culturally, it was critical that the individual was an outstanding people leader who could engage at all levels of the organisation as well as external stakeholders.  As part of the process, all short list candidates undertook a leadership profiling assessment and interview to discuss the results.  The preferred candidates were fully referenced against the technical and leadership requirements of the role. 

The Result 

Following a thorough search process, Dan Coen was identified as the ideal person to lead E&E as CEO.  Dan is a proven leader with broad sector experience having worked for leading businesses such as Tarmac, VP plc, and Socotec where he led the Infrastructure business as MD in his last role.   

The Client 

“Colin and the Berwick Partners team were hugely supportive throughout the selection process. I found the experience engaging and transparent and our interactions were relevant and always added value” 

Dan Coen, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer 

“I would like to express our sincere thanks for your professionalism and assistance in the search for a CEO for the E&E Group. It was a very well run and efficient process. You provided us with a great selection of very capable candidates to choose from. The profiles and narrative on all the candidates put forward was excellent, informative and very helpful in guiding us towards making the right decision. We would be very pleased to use your services again for any other senior management positions that we may have in the future.” 

Steve Cunningham, CFO