黑洞社区

The man previously in charge of closing out Interserve鈥檚 loss-making energy-from-waste contracts has replaced his former main board colleague at the firm, Nick Pollard, as the boss of London energy company Cory Riverside.

Dougie Sutherland (pictured) is the new chief executive of the 拢123m-turnover firm that specialises in energy-from-waste (EfW) and starts his new role next week.

Sutherland, who was one of the architects of Interserve鈥檚 cost-cutting Fit for Growth programme, left the firm at the end of February 鈥� two weeks before it collapsed into a prepack administration.

He joined Interserve back in September 2006 after spells at Lend Lease, Amey as well as the Treasury.

He later became the main board director tasked with overseeing the firm鈥檚 withdrawal from the EfW market which has seen Interserve so far rack up crippling losses of close to 拢230m.

Sutherland, who, according to Interserve鈥檚 2018 annual report picked up 拢541,000 last year, was already on Interserve鈥檚 board by the time it signed a disastrous EfW contract in Glasgow in 2012.

It was eventually kicked off the job by its client, waste management specialist Viridor, in November 2016, a move which blew the lid on the scale of the problems Interserve was facing on its EfW portfolio.

Viridor has since told Interserve it owes it 拢64m for botched work at the plant and as recently as last month said it expected to be paid up in full.

Sutherland was also trying to finalise handover of two EfW schemes that Interserve was supposed to finish in 2017, at Derby and Margam in south Wales, when he was at the firm but these have still not been completed.

A former chief executive of Bovis Lend Lease and head of construction at Balfour Beatty, Pollard worked with Sutherland for a number of months at Interserve after he was appointed a non-executive director last June.

Commenting on Sutherland鈥檚 appointment, Pollard said: 鈥淭he shareholders鈥� selection of Dougie reflects the wealth of infrastructure experience that makes him well placed to take Cory forward in addressing London鈥檚 waste capacity gap.鈥�

Pollard stepped down from the top job at Cory Riverside earlier this month. He remains a non-executive director at Interserve.