黑洞社区

A key member of contractor Balfour Beatty鈥檚 group executive leadership team has left the business as it also emerged the firm is to reduce the autonomy of its powerful UK construction arm, known as Construction Services UK.

Chris Vaughan, general counsel and company secretary for the 拢8.8bn turnover firm, and part of the 10-man executive committee running the group, has left to take another job.

Vaughan鈥檚 role as group general counsel is to be taken by David Mercer, currently general counsel for the UK construction business. Vaughan is the third member of the group executive committee to leave the business this year, with Construction Services UK (CSUK) chief executive Nick Pollard stepping down last month and former group finance director Duncan McGrath leaving in May.

The move comes as all of CSUK鈥檚 business functions - such as HR, IT and finance - are being scrapped, with these functions in future to be controlled by the group. This restructure is happening under the direction of group chief executive Leo Quinn, who has pledged to cut 拢100m of cost out of the business within two years of him taking up his role in January this year.

黑洞社区 understands the restructure means CSUK will become in effect an operational arm of Balfour, rather than a separate business.

The restructure means that Mercer鈥檚 UK role will not be replaced as he moves to fill Vaughan鈥檚 vacant position. Similarly, other CSUK business function leaders, such as sustainability director Paul Toyne and HR director Liam Donnelly have taken group roles but will not be replaced in CSUK.

Consolidating and standardising our support functions under one UK model is part of our Build to Last transformation programme

Balfour Beatty spokesperson

The change in structure, designed to contribute toward Quinn鈥檚 target of cutting 拢100m of costs, has apparently been reflected in the title given to former De La Rue executive Dean Banks, who was last month appointed to run CSUK. Banks has been given the title of managing director, where his predecessor Nick Pollard was chief executive.

At the firm鈥檚 results presentation in March, Quinn said there was 鈥渁mple opportunity鈥� to cut costs in back office functions, and that 鈥渨e鈥檙e standardising them across all of the businesses鈥�. However, it has not previously been explicitly said that CSUK will lose its functional team.

The news comes following a number of departures of senior operational staff in the UK in recent weeks. This week Steve Davies, the former regional managing director for the Midlands became the latest to exit, joining rival contractor Seddon as commercial director.

In an email to staff, Quinn said Keely Hibbitt will now be David Mercer鈥檚 deputy and that Chris Healy will take over the departing Chris Vaughan鈥檚 company secretary duties, with the changes taking effect from this Wednesday. Quinn said: 鈥淒avid [Mercer] has 30 years鈥� experience in commercial and international law. Before joining Balfour Beatty he worked in-house at BP, where he held a number of senior positions around the world, and in private practice 鈥� We wish Chris [Vaughan] well in his new post and thank him for his contribution to Balfour Beatty.鈥�

A spokesperson for Balfour Beatty said: 鈥淐onsolidating and standardising our support functions under one UK model is part of our Build to Last transformation programme. It鈥檚 about providing a suitably sized support structure for our business, offering consistent processes, controls and ways of working, 鈥榣eaning-out鈥� our costs to be more competitive in the marketplace and allowing our operational teams to focus on winning and delivering work.鈥�