Statement from Jacobs Chair and CEO Steve Demetriou on COVID-19 Actions

DALLAS, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacobs (NYSE:J) The global community is facing an unprecedented crisis unlike any we have ever experienced. Since January, Jacobs has taken the following steps in the face of COVID-19 to ensure the safety and well-being of our people and communities, while at the same time delivering on the commitments to our clients.

Taking care of our people

At Jacobs, we are a people business. As part of our Culture of Caring, we unite employees across the globe to foster a workplace that values the safety, positive mental health and inclusion of all employees. As it became clear that COVID-19 was unparalleled in the rate of community spread, we took early, decisive action in a couple of critical areas to help in efforts to flatten the curve of the virus:

• We moved swiftly to restrict travel and this restriction will remain in place until it is deemed safe by the global health organizations. For employees that have traveled outside of their home countries and particularly through high-risk countries, we established return protocols for both client-related and personal travel to ensure the safety and well-being of others.
• We successfully executed a maximum remote working environment to support physical distancing and are leveraging technology and optimizing our networks to facilitate flexible work scenarios for our people, thus ensuring business continuity and continued collaboration with our clients.
• As we shifted from office to home, we took our strong BeyondZero safety culture with us to create and maintain a safe working environment for our teams. As part of that, positive mental health is paramount, and we are encouraging and facilitating regular check-ins with our colleagues to collaborate and uplift each other during this uncertain time.

Supporting our clients

Much of Jacobs work is in support of essential and mission-critical activities, and these teams are playing an integral role in supporting clients in their efforts to mitigate the spread, develop vaccines and therapies, and ensure the safety and security of countries and communities around the world. Where the essential and mission-critical nature of our work requires us to maintain staff at certain sites or locations, we are working closely with our clients and have established project-specific plans to ensure the safety of our people and the integrity of the operation.

We are also actively supporting efforts to solve incremental challenges from the pandemic.  Working in partnership with our clients, several of our federal and local government contracts are being refocused on COVID-19 response activities, including FEMA and U.S. Corps of Engineers support in creating mobile hospital units in hot zones of the U.S.; healthcare operations planning in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand; concept design for COVID-19 vaccine and therapy manufacturing facilities; engineering support to increase production of ventilators; and cyber security support in response to increased threats during the pandemic.

Taking care of our global community

We also have an obligation to our global community and are making commitments on several fronts:

• Jacobs is donating $1 million towards the COVID-19 crisis to help global organizations on the frontline of fighting this pandemic, including an employee matching program for local efforts.
• To support our global giving efforts, effective immediately Jacobs' senior executives have agreed to a 10% reduction in salary, as have the Jacobs' board of directors, who will take a corresponding 10% reduction in cash compensation.
• Our field teams around the world engaged in operations and maintenance, decommissioning and decontamination activities are donating surplus masks, gloves and other supplies to local hospitals.

Challenging today. Reinventing tomorrow.

This pandemic affects us all – young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural. Never more so than today do our core values provide the clear framework for our decision-making at Jacobs:  We do things right. We challenge the accepted. We aim higher. We live inclusion.

I am truly inspired by the actions and sacrifices we are making as a collective global community in the face of this pandemic. To see people across the world pitching in and helping each other in ways big and small fills me with confidence and optimism for the future.

Let's keep this going well past this current challenge.

Steve Demetriou

Chair and CEO

About Jacobs 

At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. With $13 billion in revenue and a talent force of more than 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector. Visit jacobs.com and connect with Jacobs on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements as such term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provided by the same. Statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on management's current estimates and expectations as well as currently available competitive, financial and economic data. Forward-looking statements, however, are inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors that could cause business results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related reaction of governments on global and regional market conditions and the company's business. For a description of some additional factors that may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements, see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 27, 2019, and in particular the discussions contained under Item 1 - Business; Item 1A - Risk Factors; Item 3 - Legal Proceedings; and Item 7 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, as well as the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is not under any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform to actual results, except as required by applicable law.

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