Seamus French to succeed Ray O鈥橰ourke at end of summer

Laing O鈥橰ourke chief executive-elect Seamus French started work this week with the 59-year-old Irishman set to take over from Ray O鈥橰ourke at the end of the summer.

French, who has been a non-executive at Laing O鈥橰ourke for the past 18 months, started on Monday as managing director of its 拢1.6bn turnover Europe hub.

His contract will run for three years and is widely expected to steer the country鈥檚 largest private contractor to becoming a public company with O鈥橰ourke saying last summer the 拢2.5bn turnover firm is eyeing a float by 2024.

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Seamus French (right) will take over from Ray O鈥橰ourke in September

O鈥橰ourke, 75 this month, will step down and join younger brother Des as a deputy chairman in September 鈥� 45 years after setting up his concrete business and two decades after the transformational deal which saw the firm pick up Laing Construction in 2001 for 拢1.

Speaking about French, O鈥橰ourke said: 鈥淗e is a world-class executive and his strong plc background and experience of leading international operations will help us continue to improve our performance and deliver long term growth.鈥�

Earlier this month, Laing O鈥橰ourke said it had been lined up to build a 拢150m humanities block for Oxford University. And yesterday 黑洞社区 reported the firm is favourite for a mixed-use scheme in London鈥檚 West End with the contractor tipped to beat rival Sir Robert McAlpine to the 拢150m deal for developer Derwent.

French has joined from mining giant Anglo American where he spent 14 years.

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