French-based global architecture, engineering, consulting, and operating firm Egis has been present in Ukraine since 1993 and maintains a team of 180 in the country. Globally, Egis employs 19,500 people in 100 countries, excluding Russia since 2014.
The company has completed hundreds of infrastructure projects in Ukraine ranging from roads and bridges to waste management, water supply, public transport, energy, and environmental management. Egis has led EU-financed programs focused on technical advisory, institutional capacity building, policy and legislative reform, and alignment to support Ukraine’s EU accession. The office in Kyiv also serves as a regional hub for the Caucasus and Central Asia, with its main focus on Ukraine.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022, Egis has deepened its engagement in Ukraine, leading its rebuild and resilience, supporting environmental and urban development, and leveraging international partnerships. Egis Managing Director for Ukraine, Caucasus and Central Asia Alex Gittelson spoke with Business Ukraine magazine about the company’s wartime experience and role in Ukraine’s recovery.
What was the initial impact of the full-scale Russian invasion on the work of Egis in Ukraine?
Although security protocols and measures were put in place a few weeks prior to the full-scale invasion, our employees remained determined to go about their work and their lives. On 24 February 2022, however, all our lives changed forever.
At 5AM on the day of the invasion, our primary concern was the safety of our staff and their families. With support from colleagues in Poland, Romania, Moldova, and our headquarters in France, including our Europe-Africa CEO Matthieu Loussier and our Egis Group CEO Laurent Germain, we swiftly took action to evacuate our staff and offered relocation packages to all who requested safe haven. We are indeed lucky to have our Group CEO understand Ukraine’s plight, thanks to his service as President for the Movement of Enterprises of France (MEDEF) in Ukraine, and more recently through his participation on Ukraine’s Business Advisory Council.
Our Ukrainian payroll department managed to disburse salaries for the next few months in advance, ensuring everyone had a financial cushion to deal with their personal situations. Thanks to our heroic staff, our projects continued with minimal interruption, and we remained fully operational. We quickly and collectively understood that our staff, clients, and beneficiaries were all in the fight together. Our colleagues in France also established a Solidarity for Ukraine fund within Egis Group to support employees impacted by the war.
Of course, we encountered operational hardships along the way. The Russians destroyed and occupied our road supervision project office in Severodonetsk. Due to the occupation of Mariupol, projects there were suspended, including those funded by the EIB under the Ukraine Municipal Infrastructure Program (UMIP), and a French-funded water sanitation project. Two of our EBRD-funded projects in Kherson, the Trolleybus Project and Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, couldn’t resume even after liberation, as they lost their strategic and urgent importance.
Other projects were suspended, re-prioritized, or repurposed to support Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression. Most continued, however, demonstrating the economic resilience of our team together with clients and beneficiaries in sectors such as district heating, waste management, and public transport. We continue to support our staff who have relocated to Egis offices in Europe and western Ukraine. Our adaptability has allowed us to continue implementing over 40 projects, and our 180 staff remain fully occupied, half of whom are women in what is traditionally a male-dominated industry. Egis recently obtained special status as a company of critical importance to Ukraine’s recovery, allowing our staff the opportunity to focus on their work without the risk of sudden mobilization.
How has Egis adapted to wartime conditions in Ukraine over the past two and a half years?
The full-scale war forced us to shift focus. Travel restrictions made managing Central Asia operations difficult, particularly compliance monitoring processes, so we slowed development there and redirected efforts to Ukraine. We have been very flexible about working remotely to accommodate the ever-changing security situation and needs of our staff, yet we maintain a high ratio of billable hours and profit margins that meet the Group’s standards despite the challenging circumstances and investor flight in the beginning stages of the invasion. While turnover slowed in 2022, with the patience, trust, and the support of our HQ, we returned to pre-2022 levels in 2023.
I was initially frustrated during the full-scale invasion as investors and donors hesitated, but I now believe the international community, supported by assurances from the Ukrainian government, is adapting to the risks of war. Our collective message is clear: recovery cannot wait, and immediate planning is essential for winning the war. Planning is indeed the key: we believe in the need not just for a Transport Masterplan, for example, but also an Energy Masterplan, a Water Management Masterplan, a Housing Masterplan, a Climate Resilience and Environmental Masterplan, and so on. A coherent approach is needed on the part of donors and beneficiaries alike. Meanwhile, procurement policy and planning in Ukraine are also not without challenges, sometimes leading to corrupt or incompetent practices.
Nonetheless, I’m truly impressed by our team, who continue their work despite daily hardship and sacrifice. Their resilience, combined with long-established partnerships, has enabled us to continue contributing to critical infrastructure projects. Although our team often faces unprecedented conditions, including nights in shelters due to missile attacks, they remain determined. These challenges have only strengthened our commitment to Ukraine’s recovery and future.
What role do you see Egis playing in Ukraine’s recovery efforts?
At Egis in Ukraine we’re firmly engaged in the country’s recovery and see ourselves as one of the key players in this effort. We prefer to consider ourselves on-the-ground partners to organizations and financial institutions such as the EIB, the EBRD, Ukrainian agencies and bodies focused on critical infrastructure, and the United Nations, as well as the French Treasury, France Expertise, and the World Bank. Recently, we have been delivering USAID-funded initiatives on border control points, leading Nefco’s critical infrastructure projects in heating and water, and collaborating with Swedfund on water projects.
In the initial phase of the war, while most projects continued, many international and bilateral partners sought our insight. With our established local presence and security protocols, we positioned ourselves as a local partner with international experience traveling freely across the country, from the front lines to the borders, guiding new partners (and sometimes future competitors) through the fog. For investors and donors seeking to enter or re-enter the market, we have been their eyes and ears on the ground. For communities, cities, agencies, and top Ukrainian government officials, we are trusted advisors, guiding them through the bureaucratic complexities of international aid and finance with our broad view of the quickly developing and expanding marketplace across all sectors.
We’ve made significant progress in recent years, completing several recovery-focused projects. For instance, in early 2023, Egis finished work on a UNDP project for war debris removal and infrastructure reconstruction to support the sustainable recovery of war-affected communities. We are redesigning bomb shelters at schools across the country through UNOPS. Our team developed city restoration concepts and shelter designs for social institutions like kindergartens and schools, which we’ve shared with government officials and potential donors. We are repairing damaged buildings in many war-affected cities. After the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which severely impacted Mykolaiv’s water supply, we collaborated with the EBRD on urgent restoration efforts, updating the Feasibility Study for the Mykolaiv Emergency Water Project.
What are the key current Egis projects in Ukraine?
Having implemented hundreds of projects in Ukraine, it is challenging to single out the most important, as each contributes to modernizing a specific area in its own way. However, I’d like to highlight a major EU-funded initiative implemented by Nefco, with Egis as a consultant. The “Repair of Critical Infrastructure, Ukraine – Component 2” project supports five local communities: Chernihiv, Nizhyn, Okhtyrka, Trostianets, and Pervomaisk, by restoring essential infrastructure like district heating, water supply, and sewage systems.
I strongly believe in our EU-funded projects, with the EU Delegation to Ukraine being a crucial counterpart to our efforts. Thanks to the EU, we’ve worked on the Transport Masterplan, providing a national-level transport model for future investments, and completed the AASISTS project, aligning transport legislation with EU standards to enhance road safety. Last but not least, a project near and dear to me given my background in environmental science and policy, is the APENA3 project. In partnership with Greece’s Enviroplan, it focuses on environmental reforms, waste management, and first-of-their-kind climate change adaptation plans. We hope these climate change adaptation plans will set a national benchmark.
Finally, as a French company, I want to highlight the significant efforts and financial support from the French government for the Chernihiv region. We have several initiatives funded by the French Treasury and France Expertise, including urgent conservation work on the Chernihiv Regional Youth Center as part of the “Diagnostics and Development of a Digital Platform for Ukraine’s Recovery” project, in collaboration with B4 Design&Engineering and by Dassault Systèmes. Additionally, we were awarded a new project managing the emergency rehabilitation of health facilities in Chernihiv funded by French sources and managed by Expertise France. This project includes creating an air raid shelter, installing a water borehole, and rehabilitating the surgical department, with our team overseeing all aspects from design to execution.
What can you tell us about the long-term vision for Egis in Ukraine?
My colleagues and I will not rest until Ukraine’s integrity is restored, rightly defended, and built back more resilient and better than ever before, leveraging architectural and engineering lessons from the past, present, and future. My vision is for Egis in Ukraine to be recognized as a trusted institution for decades to come. I hope that my colleagues will recognize that Egis in Ukraine is Ukraine at its finest, and that it is their vehicle to shape and leverage for Ukraine to win the future. As the Egis mantra goes: imagine, create, achieve.
We aim to support Ukraine in building a robust and modern infrastructure that addresses both immediate recovery and long-term growth. Through ongoing projects and future initiatives, Egis is more committed than ever to being a key institutional and practical partner for beneficiaries, clients, and partners in Ukraine’s journey toward a thriving and sustainable future.