CEO of the Week: Olivier Le Peuch of Schlumberger

On the job for less than six months, Schlumberger Ltd.’s new CEO Olivier Le Peuch is leading the world’s largest oilfield services company to surpass Wall Street’s expectations.

For the fourth quarter, the Houston-based company beat Zacks Consensus Estimate for the second time in a row – earning 39 cents a share adjusted for non-recurring items, compared to the analysts’ consensus of 37 cents, according to Yahoo Finance. For the third quarter, Schlumberger beat the consensus estimate by 2 pennies.

As for revenues, company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. For the fourth quarter, Schlumberger posted revenues of $8.23 billion, compared to revenues of $8.18 billion for the fourth quarter of 2018.

“I would like to say how proud I am of the Schlumberger team’s performance throughout 2019,” Le Peuch said in the company’s earnings call.

“The progress we made in operational execution in a challenging year has been outstanding,” he said. “During the last six months, we set new benchmarks for safety and much improved our service quality performance. Execution matters greatly to our customers and is the foundation of our performance vision. I feel privileged to lead such a high-performing team.”

Schlumberger is the world’s leading provider of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production, and processing to the oil and gas industry, according to the company’s website. With product sales and services in more than 120 countries and employing approximately 100,000 people who represent over 140 nationalities, Schlumberger supplies the industry’s “most comprehensive range” of products and services, from exploration through production, and integrated pore-to-pipeline solutions that optimize hydrocarbon recovery to deliver reservoir performance.

Le Peuch assumed the top post in August after longtime CEO Paal Kibsgaard retired.

“Olivier possesses the company’s values, an in-depth knowledge of our business, and a proven industry track record—all together, he is ideally suited to lead Schlumberger into the next chapter of our history,” Kibsgaard said in the company’s July announcement of Le Peuch’s appointment.

In his 32 years with Schlumberger, Le Peuch has held a variety of global management positions. Prior to his current position, he served as the company’s chief operating officer. Le Peuch previously held various global management roles, including executive vice president of reservoir and infrastructure; president of the Cameron Group; president of Schlumberger Completions; vice president of engineering, manufacturing and sustaining; and president of Software Integrated Solutions.

In addition, Le Peuch held a number of leadership roles, including management of technology development in both Europe and the United States. He joined Schlumberger in 1987 as an electrical engineer and spent his early career in custom software integration and development and in high-temperature electronics development for wireline equipment.

He’s No. 97 on Chief Executive and RHR International’s CEO1000 Tracker, a ranking of the top 1,000 public/private companies

Headquarters: Houston

Age: 56

Education: Bordeaux Engineering School; Bordeaux University of Science

First joined company: 1987

Prior to joining Schlumberger: N/A

Named CEO: 2018