Woodburn takes reins as Biffa chief

American technological expert Bill Woodburn has been brought into the UK as interim CEO on behalf of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), one of the major partners which now owns Biffa. He succeeds Martin Bettington who had been with Biffa for almost 20 years and left when it was sold at the beginning of the month. It is not known how long Mr Woodburn intends to hold the post with the company not yet revealing its plans.

Industrial

Mr Woodburn joined GIP's senior management team in 2006 as a founding partner having spent 22 years at General Electric. There he carried out an assessment of GE's industrial portfolio and was also president of the company's infrastructure division.

While he has not yet revealed his plans for Biffa publicly, he is expected to be keen to develop technology within the company in the form of new waste treatment facilities. To date development on the technical side has been relatively low, with the business historically focusing on landfill, recycling and collection services.

City sources have told letsrecycle.com that they fully expect the company to look at technological solutions and besides investment, this might even see it acquiring a smaller or medium-sized business which have existing plants.

Technology

Biffa has invested recently in state-of-the-art in-vessel composting facilities but otherwise its technology is limited to a gasification facility on the Isle of Wight and a ball mill and digestion facility in Leicester which has had a number of setbacks.

Mr Woodburn is also expected to look closely at the company accounts where Biffa in recent months has revealed that its commercial work is under some pressure. Reports from London suggest the company is actively seeking new business at particularly competitive rates.

In the past Mr Woodburn has highlighted the role of investment funds in the infrastructure sector. He said: “Specialised infrastructure funds can boost operating efficiencies by applying industrial engineering techniques. They bring operating and financial improvements to the infrastructure assets bought.”