Industry veteran poached by project manager from rival firm Liberty Property Trust

Project manager Hill International has poached 30-year industry veteran John Spitz to head the firm鈥檚 operation in the UAE.

Spitz will be based in the US company鈥檚 Dubai office and joins from rival American group Liberty Property Trust, where he was vice-president of construction and development.

Before that, he was vice-president of design and construction at the Arden Group, where he was in charge of building a number of commercial projects, including the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Philadelphia.

Raouf Ghali, president of Hill鈥檚 project management group, said: 鈥淚 am confident John鈥檚 team-building skills and successful track record of delivering complex projects will help us grow our operations throughout the UAE.鈥

Hill has more than 2,000 employees across 80 offices worldwide.