Movers and shakers: Biggest construction and engineering appointments in July 2021

A round up of the biggest moves and appointments during July is below. To feature on next month’s appointments roundup, please email catherine.kennedy@emap.com

New Atkins client director

Atkins has appointed Zoe Metcalfe as client director for local and central government in the UK.

Metcalfe will focus on growing Atkins’ central and local government portfolio, driving the company’s client engagement strategy across the UK and optimising the potential from the company’s people, new technologies, research and innovation to deliver impacts at scale that benefit clients, society and the environment.

She joins from Ethos Wilder, a venture she co-founded with EthosVO during the pandemic to help scale up the health and wellbeing benefits from nature and agricultural regeneration using credible data and innovative funding and finance models.

Mace appoints new wellbeing head

Mace has appointed Kari Sprostranova to lead the health, safety and wellbeing strategy for its construction business.

Sprostranova joins from Balfour Beatty where she was a director of health, safety, environment and sustainability, leading the organisation’s health and safety standards and practices across UK construction services and helping to launch its sustainability strategy.

At Mace, she will help drive the organisation’s work in safety by design, eliminating risks from the earliest stages of projects. From offsite manufacturing and other advanced methods of delivery, Sprostranova’s work will be focused on implementing new and safer ways of working.

Balfour Beatty appoints US vice president and chief compliance officer

Balfour Beatty has announced the appointment of Daniel LaFrance as the vice president and chief compliance officer for its buildings, civils and investments operations in the US.

LaFrance joins Balfour Beatty from Colas USA, an infrastructure, construction, mining and materials firm and subsidiary of Colas Group, where he spent the last 16 years in various positions.

At Balfour Beatty he will drive legal, regulatory and operational compliance and manage risk assessments across the US.

Leo Quinn appointed Aston University visiting professor

Balfour Beatty Group chief executive and founder of The 5% Club Leo Quinn has been appointed as visiting professor at the College of Business and Social Science at Aston University, Birmingham in recognition of his contribution to business.

Quinn has been responsible for the successful transformation of Balfour Beatty, returning it to profit, creating one of the industry’s strongest balance sheets and managing the growth of the group’s order book by c. 45% in the last three years.

He has for many years supported the development of opportunities for young people, both individually and collectively. This culminated in his founding The 5% Club in 2013, a movement of employers committed to earn and learn as part of developing the workforce needed both by their business and to build a socially mobile, prosperous and cohesive nation.

Atkins appoints new digital lead for transportation

Atkins has appointed Kelly Burdall as digital programme director for its transportation division, responsible for improving the way technology and data is harnessed to increase the predictability of project delivery.

Burdall joins Atkins from Connect Plus Services – the Balfour Beatty, Atkins, Egis joint venture that operates and maintains the M25 – where, as head of performance and quality, she drove business improvement with a focus on lean management and digital transformation. Prior to this, she held management roles at Atkins and Mouchel.

Mace strengthens transport business with two new senior hires 

Mace has announced two new senior appointments – Lizz Robinson and Mark Anders – who have joined the company’s expanding transport team following a major Highways England win.

Mace have brought Robinson and Anders on board to expand the organisation’s position within the transport sector and to support the business following its appointment to Highways England’s Commercial and Project Management (CPMS) Framework.

The newly appointed directors will be responsible for building an experienced team to support the CPMS Framework, which has been developed so that Highways England can draw on the expertise needed to deliver on the government’s £27.4bn Roads Investment Strategy.

New major projects head for Mott MacDonald

John Crack has joined Mott MacDonald as global portfolio leader for transport orientated developments and major projects principal.

Prior to joining Mott MacDonald, Crack was head of structural engineering at Canary Wharf Group. In this role, he was responsible for all of the company’s buildings and major infrastructure works, both on the Canary Wharf Estate as well as interests elsewhere.

Atkins appoints new client director

Atkins has appointed Rand Watkins as client director for the UK Government Property Agency (GPA).

In the role, Watkins will bring together Atkins’ different work streams for the GPA – which include capital projects, net zero and digital information management services – into a single account.

Watkins joined Atkins in 2018 from Transport for London (TfL) where she worked for nine years, leading the engineering team for TfL’s Future Stations Programme.

Keltbray names new rail MD

Having lost the services of Martin Brown to Barhale, Keltbray has recruited Neil Thompson as its new managing director for rail.

Thompson brings to Keltbray decades of experience from both contractors and clients in the railways. He began his career with Balfour Beatty and was managing director of Birse Rail from 1996 to 2004. He then spent 15 years at Network Rail before joining Crossrail as commercial director in 2019. He left Crossrail last December.

Graham makes key appointment

Graham has appointed a new head of equality, diversity and inclusion as part of its aim to be an industry leader for fairness, inclusion and respect (FIR).

Hollie Cregan’s appointment will bolster Graham’s comprehensive, specialist and practical inclusion and diversity expertise, offering strategic, tactical and operational advice and solutions across the company.

She joins from VolkerWessels UK, where she was head of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for almost four years, and brings significant experience in the civil engineering, highways and rail sectors.

Royal HaskoningDHV appoints new sustainability lead

Royal HaskoningDHV has appointed Matthew Hunt as leading professional for Enhancing Society Together. He will be responsible for translating and implementing the company’s sustainability ambitions strategy into clear priorities and delivery.

Hunt’s current position as director environmental consultancy remains unchanged. As leading professional he can draw upon his experience delivering a wide range of services internationally, such as environmental assessment and climate change risk management to clients in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. He joined Royal HaskoningDHV 14 years ago.

New COWI North America director

Greg Matzat has joined COWI in North America as market director in a dedicated role to support the offshore wind and renewables market and enable the green transition on planned projects in North America.

A licensed professional engineer and naval architect, Matzat brings with him a wealth of experience gained over 30 years as an executive, manager and leader with expertise in offshore wind and marine industries. He will be based in the New York office.

In previous roles he was architect of the US National Offshore Wind Strategy and the New York State Offshore Wind Master Plan at the US Department of Energy and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Construction Scotland role for Morgan Sindall MD

Construction Scotland has appointed Morgan Sindall’s Stuart Parker to lead on procurement.

Parker, Morgan Sindall Construction’s managing director in Scotland, joins Construction Scotland’s industry leadership group (ILG) as chair of the procurement subgroup.

Barhale appoints new chief executive

Civil engineering contractor Barhale has appointed Martin Brown from Keltbray as its chief executive

For the past nine years Brown has been managing director of Keltbray’s UK rail infrastructure business. Before joining Keltbray he was a project director for Balfour Beatty.

New Midlands director for Vinci Construction

Vinci Construction UK has appointed Andrew Astley as regional director for its Midlands construction region.

He joined Vinci as a regional planner in 2017 from Lendlease having previously worked for Shepherd Construction.

Network Rail appoints new Eastern director

Toufic Machnouk has been appointed to Network Rail’s Eastern executive team as director, Industry Partnership Digital.

Toufic was previously programme director for the flagship East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP), responsible for establishing the first major intercity digital programme on the UK rail network.

Transport for West Midlands appoints interim managing director 

Anne Shaw has been announced as the interim managing director of Transport for West Midlands (TfWM).

Previously director of network resilience at TfWM for almost four years, Shaw is highly experienced in managing large scale and complex transport projects. During this time she has been responsible for ensuring residents, businesses and visitors are informed of transport disruption and helping them plan journeys to keep the region moving.

Prior to joining TfWM, Shaw worked at Birmingham City Council, joining as a junior technician and then working her way up to assistant director of transportation responsible for policy, strategy and delivery

Stantec appoints head of digital for Water Services

Stantec UK has announced that Daniel Causley has been appointed head of digital for water services.

Causley joined Stantec (formerly MWH) in 2002 where he has progressed his engineering career, specialising in a number of fields including optioneering and designing wastewater treatment, renewable energy solutions and enhanced digestion schemes.

In his new role, he will lead the development and delivery of digital services to water clients across the UK and Ireland.

nmcn’s infrastructure business unit appoints operations director

Construction and infrastructure specialist nmcn has announced the appointment of Louise Pavitt as operations director for major projects.

An experienced civil engineer with more than 30 years’ experience, highways specialist Pavitt joins nmcn’s infrastructure business unit from Highways England, where she was regional delivery director responsible for the performance of £2.1bn major projects in Yorkshire and the North East.

In her new role, Pavitt will lead on the delivery of nmcn’s major infrastructure schemes and help to shape the future direction of the business unit. She will sit on the senior leadership team.

Waterman expands ecology operation

Waterman has welcomed Diane Corfe as technical director to lead its national ecology team.

Corfe brings over 30 years’ industry experience, having previously led and grown ecology teams at Atkins, Scott Wilson and Jacobs. She recently undertook the role of ecology programme director for Lot 3 of HS2 Phase 2B. This saw her coordinate 22,000 ecological surveys and technical inputs for the proposed hybrid bill submission for what is currently the UK’s largest linear infrastructure project.

New rail director for Bourne Group

Bourne Group has appointed Craig Galway as its new Bourne rail and special projects director

Galway moves into the role having joined the Group in 2014 and previously held positions as project director and operations director within other Group companies, Bourne Parking and Bourne Steel.

Before joining Bourne Group, he operated at director level on numerous significant projects across Europe and the UK, most notably Heathrow Airport Terminal Five, the 2012 Olympic Park and the Philharmonie de Paris.

New boss for EV charging infrastructure company

Liberty Charge, the joint venture created by Liberty Global and Zouk Capital to roll out on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging points in the UK, has appointed Shaun Quirk as chief operating officer.

Quirk’s responsibilities will be to ensure the smooth expansion of Liberty Charge as it rolls-out further charging stations around the UK. This will involve working closely and building relationships with Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and key stakeholders in local authorities looking to deploy on street EV chargers.

Trio of directors promoted by Pegasus Group

Pegasus Group has announced the promotion of three senior directors to executive directors.

Dan Bentley from group (IT) services, Steve Lewis-Roberts from the East Midlands office and Sarah Hamilton-Foyn from the Cirencester office are all promoted to an equity position within the company. All three had become senior directors in 2019.

Strategic appointments to Hydrock board confirm growth trajectory

Integrated engineering design consultancy Hydrock has announced the appointment of two new main board directors as the business continues to expand its national footprint and client delivery.

Catriona Tully has been appointed as chief commercial officer, and Scott Elliott has been appointed as chief operating officer.

New appointment for civils manufacturer

Wrekin Products has welcomed a new senior contractor development manager, further bolstering its existing team of industry experts.

Andy Thomas has more than 30 years’ experience, during which time he has worked on a number of major road projects across the UK, including A14, M1, M6 J19, M25 widening north and south. He will now work directly with tier one contractors across the country to improve access to value engineering enabled by the solutions Wrekin Products provides.

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