Francesca Fryer will join the university as director of estates
University College London has poached a senior figure from the Ministry of Defence to take over as its director of estates just weeks before contractors are due to be appointed to the first phase of its new Stratford campus.
Francesca Fryer (pictured), who is currently head of estate strategy for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), is taking over from Andrew Grainger, who steps down from the role this month.
Grainger who has been director of estates for more than nine years announced he would be stepping down in April. He will continue to work for the university in a part-time role to support the development of its new UCL East campus.
At the DIO, Fryer has been involved in the planning of the infrastructure and service accommodation for some 20,000 service personnel and their families returning from Germany. She was previously workplace director for the BBC鈥檚 core campus in White City where she played a leading role in the BBC鈥檚 transformation programme.
UCL鈥檚 Stratford campus was given the green light in March, with London mayor Sadiq Khan signing off on the project.
Work is expected to get underway on the first phase of UCL East early next year, with five firms including Laing O鈥橰ourke and Sir Robert McAlpine set to find out this summer who has won the 拢200m deal to build Marshgate I at the east London campus.
The pair are joined on the shortlist by Lendlease, Mace and Bouygues with a winner expected to be announced by the end of summer.
Last month the university secured 拢100m of government funding toward the cost of building the new campus.
UCL East, which is being built close to Zaha Hadid鈥檚 aquatics centre, is part of the wider East Bank cultural and arts project, which has previously been known as Stratford Waterfront and Olympicopolis.
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