has supplemented our expertise in tunnels, while Bamser, which comparable expertise, has bolstered our strike force in Australia with Rail Systems Australia. And the three Scandinavian Atkins subsidiaries have afforded us a key position in Nordic countries. These acquisitions were on purpose, and they have helped us strengthen our synergies. We passed the 10,000 employee mark this year. This is a symbolic number and a major milestone in the history of a company that is able to get people involved and unite them. SYSTRA increased its workforce by 20% in 2023. How do you bring in so many employees in one go without diluting the company’s identity? Bringing in one employee and bringing in a whole set of employees together with their company are two relatively different things. You don’t integrate them in the same way, but in both cases, values need to be aligned. The appeal of our model and the diversity of our projects are two key levers in both scenarios. We also have to keep our promises and uphold our values on a day-to-day basis. The projects in which we are involved bring people together and our connected teams structure helps create a shared culture which values each person’s contribution. Over these last few years – and particularly in 2023 – our increased investment in sustainability has been a source of meaning for all Group employees. How is the deployment of this sustainability strategy going and what role does it have forSYSTRA? It has a central place in our strategy. It didn’t come out of nowhere: SYSTRA has always been a great believer in the idea of transformative mobility to address societal and environmental challenges. But the way it is formulated and structured, and the way in which it is disseminated and then adopted by our teams have established it as part and parcel of our fundamental nature. This strategy gives meaning to what we do and it enables us to meet our clients’ increasingly sophisticated requests. It definitely sets us apart from our competitors, enhances our appeal and helps us retain talent. In 2023, we picked up the pace with deploying and sharing it: we gave structure to our Climate Trajectory, we held a Climate conference, we sped up deployment of our Sustainable Design and Construction Framework and we sent out our letter of intent for the SBTi approach. For our engineering culture, sustainability offers scope for innovation and constitutes an ongoing challenge. But it is also a purpose… something that guides us. Where will SYSTRA be in 2024? Wherever it needs to be! We are going to continue with our sustained growth, further increasing our profitability and our operational performance. We are going to carry on developing our activities in our home countries and bolstering our expertise, paying particular attention to successfully integrating our new colleagues. We are going to speed up deployment of our sustainability roadmap, establishing it as a tangible aspect of all our projects, as well as extending our risk management culture. We are going to increase our efforts regarding employee engagement so that everybody is able to flourish in their job and be part of the SYSTRA adventure. 6 SYSTRA Interview with Pierre Verzat