October 8, 2026
Senior moves: September 2026
Fifty-four senior appointments were made across UK construction and infrastructure in September, at forty-five companies. Fourteen of them were at chief executive or managing director level, and three of the five new chief executives went to transport and infrastructure clients.
Seb Fossey took over Permasteelisa Group at the end of the month, after broadening McGee from demolition and groundworks into specialist engineering. Charley Maher moved from South Staffordshire Group to lead Bristol Airport as it works towards 15 million passengers a year, and Mark Johnston returned to his home city from Gatwick to run Edinburgh Airport and its five-year, £500m capital plan. Emma Palmer joined Platform Housing Group, one of England's largest housing associations, from Eastlight Community Homes, and Paul Smith was named chief executive of the Office of Rail and Road from January.
Rohan O'Grady came from CPB Contractors in Australia to lead the Skanska Costain Strabag joint venture on HS2's London tunnels. Lesha Chetty joined Bovis to grow its consulting business, Simon Gorski joined Stepnell as it forecasts 20% growth, and Gavin Stonard moved to WSP to lead water as AMP8 delivery builds. Daniel Easthope now leads H&MV Engineering's UK business, Matthew Ashwell runs GOLDBECK UK, Alan Atkins joined Swietelsky UK to lead operations and technical, Stewart Cash took infrastructure advisory across EMEA at Black & Veatch, and Chris Tyerman joined Mitie to lead a new technical projects and advisory business.
Balfour Beatty made four senior hires, among them Emma Loxton as chief strategy officer and Tom Sanders as director of energy developments, which takes it to five on our register in twelve months. AtkinsRéalis made three, with Jane Healey Brown joining from Arup to develop work from the devolution agenda and two new practice directors covering northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Ramboll made two appointments for its Scottish growth, Graeme Dodds from Jacobs and Mark Baynham from Mott MacDonald. Darren Cook joined AECOM as highways and streets sector director and Chris Morgan joined WSP as transport sector growth lead. On the client side, Neil Holm joined HS2 as chief programme officer, Richard Allan moved to Network Rail's Eastern region, Kerry Bangle joined Heathrow as surface access director and Andrew Stephenson became chief commercial officer at Great British Energy – Nuclear.
Matthew Beeson joined Keltbray as programme director for defence and new markets, Chris Hoesli joined Ridge as partner for defence and security, and John Duncan moved from AWE to Morgan Sindall Infrastructure. Three moves in one month with defence written into the role or the career behind it is worth watching for anyone hiring delivery leaders in the sector.
The full list, company by company, is in the September 2026 report.
We track senior movement across construction and infrastructure every month because it is the fastest read on where work is landing, which teams are being built out and which markets are about to get harder to hire into. If a pattern here matches something you are planning, that is the conversation worth having.
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