Laing Construction鈥檚 managing director joins smaller rival after 14 months in the job.
Morgan Sindall has appointed Laing Construction鈥檚 former managing director, Paul Whitmore, as its commercial director. Laing announced just two weeks ago that Whitmore had decided to step down after only 14 months as managing director. He had been a Laing employee for more than 26 years.

Whitmore had been in talks with Morgan Sindall鈥檚 executive chairman, John Morgan, since early February. He told his Laing colleagues shortly after Christmas that he intended to leave.

Whitmore will join four other main directors on the Morgan Sindall board, where he will have wide-ranging responsibilities over the group鈥檚 portfolio of businesses. This includes social housing business Lovell Partnership and fit-out businesses Morgan Lovell and Overbury.

鈥淚 will be looking across all the businesses at areas such as risk,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he businesses are also not fully mature in terms of profit and I will be looking to make an impact there as quickly as possible.

John runs a tight ship 鈥� I see myself as being the fifth Olympic ring

Paul Whitmore

鈥淛ohn and his colleagues run a tight central ship,鈥� Whitmore added. 鈥滻 see myself as being the fifth Olympic ring.鈥�

Whitmore said he had moved to Morgan Sindall, a much smaller company than Laing in terms of turnover, because of its future prospects. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a company which is burgeoning and wants to be a significant player in the future.鈥� Laing has a 拢1.2bn turnover, compared with Morgan Sindall鈥檚 figure of 拢521m.

Morgan also stated publicly last month that consolidation makes sense for the construction industry. This is because he thinks the company鈥檚 market worth, currently at about 拢90m, is too small to attract large funds.