黑洞社区

Kier is bringing in a senior project leader from Laing O鈥橰ourke to a newly created role of London regional director to grow the firm鈥檚 commercial work in the capital.

Gus Wright joins in January and will report to Kier鈥檚 construction boss for London and Southern David McKenzie.

Kier has been rebuilding its presence in the London commercial market in the past couple of years, targeting jobs worth around 拢50m to 拢60m.

Last autumn, the firm beat Mace and McAlpine to a mixed-use scheme set to go up close to Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station in London鈥檚 West End.

The firm inked the 拢50m deal in September with developer CO-RE, which is masterminding the six-storey block with M&G Real Estate.

Over the summer it pipped McAlpine to a 拢60m office and retail scheme on Tottenham Court Road for Derwent. The job, called the Network 黑洞社区, is Kier鈥檚 first for the developer.

And earlier this year it inked another debut deal, this time for Stanhope, to build a 拢50m residential scheme at the former TV Centre in West London.

McKenzie said: 鈥淎s part of our strategy, we have built up a strong portfolio in London and Gus will further enhance our operational leadership, capability and capacity to our London clients.鈥�

Wright leaves O鈥橰ourke after more than six years in a second spell at the firm after first joining the business, when it was known as Laing Construction, in the early 1990s. He left the firm, which was picked up by O鈥橰ourke in 2001, for Ardmore in 2004 where he worked seven years before becoming an operations director at Mace for three years.

News of his appointment follows that of the departure of Liam Cummins, the firm鈥檚 group boss of construction after three years.

Cummins, who joined from Laing O鈥橰ourke, goes next month to take up chief executive role in a different part of the industry. He is being replaced by current group commercial director Stuart Togwell but no announcement on who is replacing Togwell has been made yet.