Jean-François Nicod

Experience

Mr. Nicod has more than fifty years of experience in management and in civil and environmental engineering.  In civil engineering, he has been responsible for investigations, design recommendations, construction management, quality control and supervision of various projects including hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, transportation systems, high rise buildings, earth fill dams, flood control and irrigation systems.  In environmental engineering, he has been responsible for site assessment, remedial investigation, feasibility studies and supervision of remediation action for oil and gas facilities, military installations and industrial sites.  He has prepared, implemented and monitored Environmental Master Plans, Quality Assurance and Health and Safety Programs on various projects.

He is familiar with EEC environmental directives and the regulations/legislation of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland as well as Ecuador.  He is experienced in conducting negotiations with European and South American authorities.

Since 1976, he has been responsible for large multidisciplinary projects in Europe, North Africa and Middle East. His management responsibility included contractual, organizational and financial aspects of projects requiring staffing levels ranging from several tens to several hundreds of man-months.

He started and had overall management responsibility for URS Corporation (previously Woodward-Clyde) offices in Europe since 1979.  After the merger with URS Greiner in 1997 and later with Dames & Moore in 1999, he has successfully integrated all the offices in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

Starting in 2001, Mr Nicod has worked as an independent consultant. Between 2007 and 2010, he has also been appointed CEO of Cleuson-Dixence Construction SA for the rehabilitation of the Cleuson-Dixence penstock as well as the recommissioning of the 1200 MW Bieudron power plant, Switzerland.  From 2011 to 2018 he was a member of the executive board, responsible for the technical and planning aspects for the construction and commissioning of Nant de Drance 900 MW underground pump-storage power plant in Valais, Switzerland.

Currently, he is the owner advisor for the design and construction of a new industrial plant in the state of Vaud, Switzerland

Representative Projects

Mr. Nicod’s representative projects are: blast monitoring for the enlargement of an underground hydroelectric power house, Villarino, Spain; geologic, seismologic, and geotechnical studies for the WPPSS-3 nuclear power plant, State of Washington and the Sidi Kreir nuclear power plant, Egypt; establishment of design criteria for the Alyeska Pipeline, Alaska; geologic and geotechnic consultation for the access highway to Galicia, Spain; evaluation of the liquefaction potential of sand deposits, emergency cooling pond, Braidwood nuclear power station, Illinois.  He has provided management and technical leadership for: route selection and development of geotechnical criteria for the proposed 1’000-km railroad between Marrakech and Laayoun in Morocco; development of criteria for an offshore platform in 100-m depth of water in the Gulf of Cadiz, Spain; seismic microzonation study consisting of evaluation of seismic risks and development of recommendations for reconstruction, urban planning and land use for the area devastated by the 1980 El Asnam earthquake in Algeria;  geological and geotechnical and investigations for the proposed Great Man-Made River Project in Libya; and, construction supervision for the rehabilitation of a 35-km canal in Santo Domingo.

In the environmental field, Mr. Nicod has participate in:  asbestos surveys for US military communities in Germany; natural land resource management plans for the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels training areas, Germany; environmental site assessment and remedial investigations for more than fifty subsidiaries of US firms located throughout Europe; environmental impact assessment of a proposed incinerator near Barcelona, Spain; and, the development of Valeo environmental master plan.  He has also assisted a multinational in an environmental claim in Switzerland.  He was the project manager for: the environmental assessment of more than 30 waste handling facilities in France and Belgium; the environmental liability assessment of three refineries in the Netherlands; the investigation and feasibility studies for the remediation of a former gas work site at the Cornillion, France; the environmental impact assessment for the Midor refinery near Alexandria, Egypt; the sediment management plan for the rehabilitation of Lake Sud in Tunis; the environmental assessment of: more than 200 Rhône Poulenc facilities around the world prior to the partial flotation of Rhodia; the remediation action plan for the oil exploration and production facilities of the former Texaco-Petroecuador consortium in the Oriente region of Ecuador; the environmental liability assessment for the merger of the Exxon and Shell additive business; the environmental terrestrial and coastal base line surveys and environmental impact assessment for the proposed 400-km pipeline and Total LNG plant in Bal Haf, Yemen; the due diligence for the acquisition by Valeo of ITT Automotive and Zexel; and, the rehabilitation of the four Alusuisse landfills in Valais, Switzerland.  He was also the peer reviewer for the development of environmental governing standards for the US Department of Defense in Greece, Italy and Spain.

Mr. Nicod was responsible for a European market study for Tensar geogrids to be used in soil stabilization and reinforcement and retaining structures, including the development of a marketing strategy.  He was consultant to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (EPFL) for the reorganization of the Architectural, Civil and Environmental Faculty (ENAC) and the Engineering Faculty (STI).  He also served as an independent expert for a soil and ground water contamination in a €75 millions arbitration of the International Commerce Chamber of Paris and as an expert to Ponticelli Frères SA in an arbitration case against Jacob Engineering.