Skanska Construction’s chief executive Keith Clarke is preparing the group for its next stage of growth by grouping the companies into three separate business areas – the UK, World Markets and Asia. This move will create shorter lines of communication, encouraging quick responses to new trends and opportunities.
David Fison will head up the World Markets business area, which includes the mine development and LNG businesses, while Asia (Gammon and India) will continue to report directly to Keith Clarke.
For the UK companies a management board has been created with four new operational directors bringing together a high-level team drawn from across Skanska’s UK businesses to drive expansion in core markets.
The new directors are Andy Sturgess, Peter Coote, Alan Tweddle, and Mike Putnam. They will form the new Skanska UK Management Board with Keith Clarke as chief executive, Robert Wallace as deputy, John Keehan (finance) and Mark Galloway (legal).
This new set-up follows a busy period for Skanska Construction in the UK in which it has picked up a number of large wins, including the contract for Swiss Re and three major Channel Tunnel Rail Link contracts.
Keith Clarke said, “This is a key moment in our development. Following over four years of steady improvement we are now positioning our UK companies for further growth through clearly defined markets with shorter lines of communication and devolved responsibilities. The formation of this UK management board is a central part of the process.”
The new directors will take day-to-day responsibility for all the UK businesses. Their responsibilities are as follows:
Andy Sturgess, director of Skanska UK and managing director of UK Building, with responsibility for continued growth in UK Building and for all PFI work in the UK. This includes working with Skanska’s PFI investment arm, Skanska BOT, to find suitable opportunities in which Skanska UK and Skanska BOT can work together. Andy already has considerable experience in this field, having successfully grown UK Building’s PFI design and build portfolio which currently has orders to the value of £700 million on its books.
Peter Coote, director of Skanska UK and managing director of Skanska Rashleigh Weatherfoil. Peter has successfully grown this company into one of the UK’s top ten building services company and has expanded into related areas such as facilities services. In his new role he will continue this growth. In addition he will facilitate and support the introduction and growth of the Skanska Group’s facilities management capabilities in the UK, in particular through combining Skanska Rashleigh Weatherfoil’s hard facilities services activities with that of the Swedish based company, Skanska Services.
Alan Tweddle, director of Skanska UK and managing director of Skanska UK Civil Engineering, will also take responsibility for Skanska Technology. Together with its managing director Jim Kirkwood, they will look to expand the front-end capabilities of UK Civil Engineering’s contracting skills, including planning, procurement and project management, while enhancing its design and construct skills. This will enable the company to further penetrate the civils market where clients are increasingly looking towards the contractor to provide the entire package from concept to completion on major infrastructure projects.
Mike Putnam, as director of Skanska UK, will continue to oversee the growth of Cementation Foundations Skanska in addition to taking responsibility for the other specialist companies Clark & Fenn Skanska, TCE Skanska and Richard Lees Steel Decking. He will also look after the group’s training and development activities in the UK.
The changes take effect as from July 1st.