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鈥淲hat the Army brings is leadership and management ability to deal with chaos and come out of it in a decent order.鈥�

Sir Robert McAlpine鈥檚 relatively new head of its fledgling defence business is explaining why he thinks that construction firms should be using more veterans from the forces.

鈥淭here is something special about a soldier who has worked in some very difficult places that can bring a bit of something special to any organisation,鈥� Mike Hickson adds. 鈥淏ut you have to give them a chance.鈥�

Hickson spent 30 years in the Army after a career in the City stalled after just a few months. 鈥淚 wanted to work in the City and make lots of money, but I hated it; sitting at a desk just wasn鈥檛 me.鈥� So he signed up as an officer cadet at Sandhurst.

He started as a second lieutenant 鈥� for those less versed in Army rankings, this is the lowest officer rank 鈥� and left as a brigadier, in charge of 22,000 people at the Royal Logistic Corps. 鈥淚t was really nice to finish as the head of the organisation that you鈥檇 joined 30 years earlier,鈥� he says.

He had actually joined the Royal Corps of Transport back in 1982, but this was later merged into the Royal Logistic Corps.

鈥淚 was mad on cars, I used to race them so [joining the transport corps] seemed like a sensible thing to do. There was so much in there, that you could move around.鈥�

He had initially signed up on a three-year short service commission but decided to stay on. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥業鈥檓 loving this鈥�, so I stayed,鈥� he says.

Before arriving at the Army and after leaving the City, he coached rugby union in New Zealand and spent more than a year touring around the US on a motorbike. At the end of it, he remembers sitting on a beach in Florida thinking, 鈥淲hat do I do now? I knew I didn鈥檛 want to sit at a desk, I wanted to do something different. I thought, 鈥業鈥檒l just join the Army鈥�. No one in our family had been in the Army.鈥�

I had been a brigadier for eight years and I just thought it was time to go. I hadn鈥檛 really proved I could do something outside and I wanted another career

The tours he carried out during his career in the forces included Northern Ireland, peacekeeping in Cyprus and Sierra Leone and going to Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.

He loved his time there but admits that he had another Florida-beach moment in 2012. He was in his 50s, got to where he felt he could go in the Army 鈥� 鈥渁fter 30 years, you kind of hope you鈥檙e going to progress鈥� 鈥� and was faced with the question he had addressed on Pensacola Beach more than three decades before.

鈥淭he end of the road [in the Army] is 55 unless you鈥檙e right at the top. Where else was I going? I鈥檇 been a brigadier for eight years and I just thought it was time to go. I hadn鈥檛 really proved I could do something outside and I wanted another career.鈥�

So he joined US firm Fluor as a logistics director and immediately began work on expanding an oil field in Kazakhstan. It put his logistics experience to the test as it involved building ports in the Black and Caspian Seas, navigating the Russian canal network and constructing an 80km-long road through the middle of nowhere.

At the end of it, HS2 was just beginning and the scheme needed a logistics director. He was asked if he fancied it, went along for an interview and eventually got the job.

He says HS2 had originally planned to use its buying power and purchase all the equipment and materials needed for the project and issue it all to its contractors. 鈥淚 thought that was a rubbish plan,鈥� he says.

Within five weeks he had written up an alternative proposal which, in sum, was: Let the contractors deal with it, they have their own supply chains and every time something was delivered late or not of the right quality, then under the old plan, well, it could all get quite legal.

鈥淎s a result, they didn鈥檛 really need a logistics director, which made it slightly difficult for me.鈥�

Instead, he became a programme director for the middle bit of the first phase, the stretch of the railway running through the Chilterns, before switching to land and property director, where he was in charge of compulsory purchases. 鈥淵ou can either do it badly or really well and I wanted to do it really well.鈥�

He was buying up land ahead of phase two, the route from Birmingham to Manchester, when the leg got pulled by then prime minister Rishi Sunak last October.

We need to be bold in how we use our construction industry. It鈥檚 a fabulous industry for the nation. It鈥檚 an industry of people who want to do things well and an industry the UK needs

Hickson says the project鈥檚 goalposts had moved beyond recognition. 鈥淚 joined to deliver a national infrastructure programme and, in my book, running from north London to Birmingham is not a national infrastructure programme. It just wasn鈥檛 what I set off to do when I joined HS2.鈥�

He can鈥檛 help but feel that HS2 has been a missed opportunity after all the chopping and changing over the years. The original Y-shaped axis 鈥� heading off to Manchester and Leeds after calling at Birmingham and starting in the middle of London 鈥� has been reduced to what National Infrastructure Commission chairman Sir John Armitt last year called a 鈥渟huttle service鈥� between Acton and Birmingham.

鈥淗S2 should have been a transformative project for the nation,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e need to be bold in how we use our construction industry. It鈥檚 a fabulous industry for the nation. It鈥檚 an industry of people who want to do things well and an industry the UK needs to have and invest in.鈥�

He was nine years at HS2 before leaving in the spring this year. He knew McAlpine from his time on HS2. 鈥淚 liked their culture, their values, how they operated.鈥�

>> See also: McAlpine completes restructure with new faces brought in as firm switches from regions to sectors

>> See also: 鈥楾hey needed this鈥� 鈥� McAlpine鈥檚 new boss wins plaudits as industry prepares for firm to reset

He got in touch with Tony Gates, until recently the firm鈥檚 head of infrastructure, and told him he was looking for a job. Anything doing at McAlpine?

鈥淲hat I didn鈥檛 know was that McAlpine was setting up a defence business. I wasn鈥檛 looking for a defence sector role.鈥�

He had four interviews and, a few months before his 65^th birthday, started in April this year. He admits he鈥檚 trying to build a business from scratch and right now the firm has not won anything or is even bidding anything.

If he is a one-man band, then he probably is because the defence business is, basically, him. 鈥淏ut I have the whole of McAlpine to pull upon,鈥� he adds.

And then there is its history in the sector to use as a calling card 鈥� from its work helping build the Mulberry harbours to support the D-Day landings in 1944 through to its jobs rebuilding Colchester Garrison, which finished in 2008, and the new US embassy at Nine Elms which opened seven years ago after it moved from Grosvenor Square.

鈥淭he board have taken a decision that they are ging to build a defence sector. Defence is one of the areas that is going to grow. You follow the money so defence is accommodation for soldiers all the way to ammunition storage and developing barracks.鈥�

He says the defence sector can be 鈥渘otoriously slow鈥� and a strategic defence review, out next spring, will bog things down further. 鈥淲here the money is going to be spent is a little opaque right now but what I鈥檓 focusing on is getting to know clients and for that client to have a programme of work.

鈥淭he focus is on where do things have to be done? We know there are sites, like [nuclear warheads manufacturing complex] Aldermaston that are cramped and antiquated.鈥�

He says he has not been given a specific turnover target but reckons 拢200m within three years feels achievable.

I鈥檝e committed to a five-year plan to develop an enduring programme of work in defence for Sir Robert McAlpine.

鈥淚 need to be realistic,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭here are many competitors who have been there a long time, but [clients] want a new entrant.

鈥淚 know a lot of the people and also speak their language 鈥� there is a bit of a defence language. When they come to visit our sites they鈥檙e blown away by what we can do.

鈥淧eople [at McAlpine] recognise I can鈥檛 do it on my own but it doesn鈥檛 need more than me right now. We鈥檙e looking at jobs for BAE and AWE and we鈥檙e waiting for government programmes to come out. 

鈥淚 have committed to a five-year plan to develop an enduring programme of work in defence for Sir Robert McAlpine.鈥�

Hickson knows the firm is in the foothills and has a long way to go before it reaches the top of the mountain but adds: 鈥淭he message I鈥檓 trying to send is, 鈥�McAlpine is back in defence鈥�.

鈥淩ight now I don鈥檛 want to increase my overhead because I don鈥檛 need to 鈥� but pretty soon I hope to.鈥�