MONTREAL -- SNC-Lavalin is looking to turn yet another page on its troubled past by replacing its chief executive with someone the company's board of directors believes can deliver stronger results from its core engineering and construction business.

   The company announced Monday that Robert Card, 62, is stepping down after three years on the job.

   He will be replaced effective Oct. 5 by Neil Bruce, 55, who joined the firm a few months after Card and became chief operating officer earlier this year.

   Board chairman Lawrence Stevenson said Card transformed the company by enhancing its ethics and compliance system, but both sides "mutually agreed" over the past nine months that it was time for a change at the top.

   "We feel that Neil is the right person to focus on that operational execution and deliver the kind of projects that our clients want -- on time, on budget with the right financial performance," Stevenson said in an interview.

   Stevenson said the company's strategy, developed by both executives, won't change. SNC has repositioned its operations through the sale of AltaLink electric transmission company in Alberta and the acquisition of U.K.-based Kentz, which has expertise in oil and gas.

   Card will remain an adviser to the board and his successor through 2016. Details about his compensation and departure package will be disclosed next year ahead of the company's annual meeting. Card received $4.96 million in total compensation last year.

   Bruce had initially led SNC's mining, metallurgy and oil and gas business. He has more than 30 years experience in the engineering and construction industry and was in London before moving to the SNC's headquarters in Montreal.

   Analysts said the change in leadership won't alter SNC-Lavalin's direction.

   "Turning a large ship such as SNC is no easy task," said Maxim Sytchev of Dundee Securities. He said instituting culture change enabled the company to win massive government contracts, including the new Champlain Bridge in Montreal and large transit projects in Toronto and Paris.

   "We view the company's current turnaround stage is that of stabilization. The next leg of progress pertains to financial performance, which has still been uneven," he wrote in a report.

   The leadership change comes as the company and two of its subsidiaries face one count of fraud and one of corruption over its dealings in Libya, to which it plans to plead not guilty.