Parsons subsidiary's new president plans revamp, not layoffs.

Bill Hall, new president of Ralph M. Parsons Co., said he is considering some reorganization of that largest subsidiary of Parsons Corp. but plans no layoffs for its 4,000 employees.

Hall, a 49-year-old resident of La Verne, took over on July 29 as president of the Pasadena-based Ralph M. Parsons Co., which represents 40 percent of Parsons Corp.'s $1.3 billion in revenues. Hall replaced Robert B. Sheh, who left Parsons to become president and chief executive officer of Torrance-based International Technology Corp.

Hall said he is considering forming specialty groups within the company, which now basically has two divisions -- an oil division and one which builds infrastructure improvements, such as airports and military bases. More individual groups within the company may be more responsive to clients needs, Hall said, since the company has grown enormously in the last few years.

With revenues tripling at the petroleum side of the company in the last three years and overall, Ralph M. Parsons Co. has added 900 employees in just the last year. If any restructuring occurs, employees will be added, not cut, Hall vowed.

He expects more business in the future from the Russian tundra, where U.S. oil companies are negotiating joint ventures to drill into the oil-rich but frozen solid earth. Parsons built much of the infrastructure for Atlantic Richfield Co.'s Prudhoe Bay operations on the North Slope of Alaska, and so may have an edge in nabbing contracts requiring expertise in drilling in such terrain.

Hall also expects more work from the expansion of U.S. airports. Parsons is currently involved in expansion work at Dulles International Airport and Washington National Airport in D.C. and John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The company expects to lose business building military bases for the U.S. government, Hall said.

Hall previously was a senior vice president in the company's petroleum division and before that worked in the infrastructure division and in the mid-1980s was program manager for the construction of the Saudi Arabian city of Yanbu, a planned community of 150,000.