CLASS OF 2016
WORLD-GENERATION FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016
14
Elias Gedeon heads up global sales
and business development for Babcock &
Wilcox Enterprises (B&W) spun off on
July 1, 2015 from the parent company. He’s
responsible for these activities for all three
operating segments: Global Power, Global
Services and Industrial Environmental.
B&W, a global leader in energy and envi-
ronmental technologies and services,
employs approximately 6,000 employees in
25 countries. Revenues for 2015 were $1.76
billion, an increase of 18.3% from 2014 and
new bookings at $1.84 billion, up 16.7%
from previous year. Gedeon leads the
group from B&W headquarters in
Charlotte, NC and travels about 50 percent
of his time.
GLOBAL POWER
B&W’s Global Power covers all new
utility steam generation, renewable power,
environmental solutions and industrial
power. “On utility projects outside N.
America, we work with Japanese,
Chinese, Korean and Spanish EPC’s
where typically our portion is 20-25% of
the total plant,” Gedeon said. B&W also
has two major Joint Ventures in Asia.
“Babcock & Wilcox Beijing Company in
China with 5,000 MWs of fabrication
capacity and Thermax B&W Energy
Solutions in Pune, India with capacity of
3,000 MWs a year, each serving their
respective markets” Gedeon added.
WASTE TO ENERGY (WTE)
There are 86 Waste to Energy (WTE)
units in the US, 500 in Europe and 330 in
Asia. “We have recently inaugurated new
units at one of the largest WTE facilities
in the world and the first in the US in 20
years, a 150 MW facility at West Palm
Beach, FL.” Gedeon said. He sees a
renaissance in the US in waste energy
facilities and continuing growth in
Europe where landfills are restricted and
governments are giving subsidies for
waste energy. “We have many WTE facili-
ties under construction in the UK and
northern Europe and now see large
opportunities in the Emirates, Kuwait
and Turkey for municipal solid waste
energy,” Gedeon shared.
B&W collaborated with eSolar to
develop Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
tower technologies by delivering a total of
5 MW water/steam solar receivers for the
Sierra Sun Tower plant in California.
“We’re looking at prospects in the Middle
East and Europe and are working with
developers in the permitting process,”
Gedeon offered.
GLOBAL SERVICES
B&W’s Global Services focus on
major service projects, parts and techni-
cal services for B&W’s 300,000 MWs of
installed generation in 90 countries and
those of its competitors. “The North
American market remains our largest
installed base and we are expanding our
operation internationally in this seg-
ment,” Gedeon pointed out.
B&W was awarded recently an $18
million contract to engineer and install a
replacement reheater at Xcel Energy’s’
Pawnee Station in Brush, CO.
“We provide construction services on
new and retrofit projects in N. America.
We also see substantial opportunities to
retrofit facilities with our own ash-han-
dling systems to meet the new require-
ments,” Gedeon said.
B&W continues to build a more
diverse backlog, both by geography and
market.
INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTAL
B&W’s Industrial Environmental seg-
ment has a customer base of several thou-
sand businesses in over 60 countries
across six continents. B&W acquired
MEGTEC in June, 2014 with 600 employ-
ees in 13 offices. This company manufac-
tures air pollution control systems for
industrial applications, and coating and
drying equipment for a variety of process-
es, including energy storage. “Our biggest
clients are still those seeking industrial air
pollution abatement and recovery. That
was part of our diversification program
that we started a couple of years ago, and
we continue to look at other opportunities
for acquisition, be it in this arena, industri-
al environmental or other arenas to help
us diversify our products and services to a
certain degree away from coal. Coal will
continue to play a role in our business, but
renewables is the biggest growth market
right now for us. We also continue to look
to see what other ways we could diversify
for the future,” Gedeon underscored.
ABOUT ELIAS GEDEON
Elias Gedeon has more than 35 years
of experience in the power generation
industry and has held various sales, opera-
tions and P&L leadership positions in the
US and overseas.
Prior to joining B&W in May 2014, he
served as Alstom Power’s Boiler Group
Vice President, Global Sales and
Marketing since 2009, and from 2003 as
Alstom’s Power Vice President Sales,
Americas. From 1981 to 2002, Mr. Gedeon
held a number of positions of increasing
responsibility at Foster Wheeler Power
Group and its subsidiaries including
Executive VP, Global Sales and Marketing,
VP, Operations, Foster Wheeler Energia
S.A. Spain. He began his professional
career as a Service Engineer with Foster
Wheeler Energy in 1981 and has worked
and lived in many countries.
Gedeon holds a bachelor’s degree in
engineering from Stevens Institute of
Technology and an Executive MBA from
the University of Michigan.
ELIAS GEDEON
Senior Vice-President
& Chief Business Development Officer
Babcock & Wilcox
