A planned succession will see some seat-swapping at the pointy end of global engineering giant AECOM, with the President becoming chief and the chief becoming chairman.

The board at AECOM has elected Michael Burke to succeed John Dionisio as CEO. Dionisio will become executive chairman of the board when Burke succeeds him, joining AECOM’s board of directors in March next year.

Burke joined AECOM in 2005 and was named chief financial officer in 2006. He became President in October 2011, play a big part in the doubling of the company's workforce, tripling of its revenue and the dramatic expansion of its technical capabilities and geographic reach.

Dionisio has been with the company since 1971, becoming president and CEO in 2005. To make room for Mr Burke and assist the rest of the company board through the transition, Dionisio has agreed to serve as executive chairman until March 2015.

“On behalf of AECOM’s board of directors, I am pleased to announce Mike’s appointment as CEO,” said Dionisio.

“As president, and in his previous role as CFO, Mike has worked closely with me to shape and drive AECOM’s growth strategy, diversify our service offerings, expand our global footprint and deliver superior business results."

The soon-to-be new CEO said: "I am extremely honored to lead AECOM and am grateful to John and the board of directors for the privilege to lead the 45,000 AECOM architects, engineers, designers, planners, scientists and management professionals who serve our clients around the world,” said Burke.

“I look forward to working with our talented management team to leverage AECOM’s strengths and leadership in technical excellence, innovation and project delivery to provide world-class service to our clients, professional development opportunities to our staff and incremental value to our stockholders.”