Tribal Group, the now streamlined education, learning and training supplier, has appointed COO Keith Evans as its new CEO. Evans joined Tribal in October 2009 as group commercial director, having moved from clinical diagnostic services provider Euromedic UK, where he was CE. Evans then made it to become Tribal's COO in February 2011. Prior to Euromedic, Evans was MD of Mercury Health, the healthcare business sold by Tribal in 2007.
Evans’ appointment fills a seven month gap at Tribal ‘sans CEO’, since the departure of former CEO Peter Martin in April (see here). Martin stayed on longer than his planned December 2010 leaving date (see here) to help steer through the sale of Tribal's health and government business to Capita in April (see here). Tribal had effectively been without a CEO since then.
Chairman John Ormerod said that Evans had “overseen the changes needed to equip Tribal to operate as an efficient business” since the sale to Capita. So we can assume he was will heavily involved in the cost reduction programme, which has now been completed, and should generate annual savings of £5m. As CE, Evans now has to deliver “growth and the delivery of sustainable value to [Tribal’s] customers, staff and shareholders.” However this will be no easy feat, at least in the near term, given Tribal’s ‘lacklustre’ update earlier this month (see here).