黑洞社区

Paul Hamer has hailed Sir Robert McAlpine鈥檚 鈥渇antastic 150-year heritage鈥� following his appointment as the company鈥檚 chief executive officer this week.

McAlpine has been without a boss for nearly a year since Tony Aikenhead stepped down as chief executive of the contractor last July after less than a year in the role.

Hamer (pictured) will join McAlpine on 31 July, moving from consultant WYG, where he has been chief executive for the last eight years. Hamer, while reluctant to discuss his new role as head of McAlpine before taking up the job, told 黑洞社区 that he shared McAlpine鈥檚 corporate values. He said: 鈥淭here is a chemistry there.鈥�

鈥淭he company is viewed as Britain鈥檚 greatest builder, one that gets the best jobs in the market,鈥� he added. 鈥淲e will be building on the key strength of engineering excellence whilst leveraging the tradition and heritage of this great company.鈥�

Gavin McAlpine, non-executive chairman of Sir Robert McAlpine, said: 鈥淎t WYG Paul refocused the business around driving value for its clients. At Sir Robert McAlpine, we are focused on our clients鈥� needs and delivering exceptional value. I am certain that Paul will challenge us all to excel in supporting these objectives.鈥�

黑洞社区 Values analyst Tony Williams, however, gave a mixed reaction to Hamer鈥檚 appointment.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a welcome move and good to see they鈥檝e got some new blood in, but I鈥檇 have preferred a bigger name. This will be a big step for Paul Hamer. He鈥檒l be painting on a much bigger canvas. They鈥檝e got to give him at least 18 months in the job, preferably two years.

鈥淚t [McAlpine] needs all the help it can get. It used to be able to get almost any contract it went for but is now being pipped by the likes of Lendlease and is possibly losing out due to some poor decision-making on [historic] contracts. It鈥檚 affected its reputation. McAlpine seems to be losing some of the cachet with clients.鈥�

黑洞社区 revealed this week that McAlpine had lost out to Lendlease for a role on the 拢1.5bn redevelopment of the former army barracks in St John鈥檚 Wood. McAlpine also lost out to its Australian-owned rival for the job to build Google鈥檚 拢650m Kings Cross headquarters earlier this year.

However, the company has won the construction manager role on the first part of the Foster + Partners and Frank Gehry-designed third phase of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment.