Keltbray brings in new chief executive ahead of move to London headquarters

Keltbray has appointed the boss of Ferrovial’s construction arm Karl Goose to be its new chief executive succeeding Vince Corrigan who is stepping down next spring after more than a decade at the business.

Goose has been with Ferrovial for more than 25 years since joining Amey, which Ferrovial bought in 2003, in 1998.

He formally joins Keltbray at the beginning of December and his arrival coincides with a wider a rejig at the top of the firm and a move to new head office in central London this autumn.

Corrigan has been with Keltbray since 2015 and arrived after leaving Sir Robert McAlpine, where he was in charge of its London and South-east business.

Corrigan, who replaced Darren James as chief executive when James headed off to lead the infrastructure business Keltbray sold to private equity last summer, is set to leave by next Easter after completing a handover. Under the rejig, Peter Burnside, currently group finance director, will move up to executive deputy chairman at the start of next month.

Burnside is being replaced by Scott Bennett, currently finance director of Keltbray’s built environment business, while chief operating officer Neil Thompson will also leave next spring. Operations director Lee Cain is moving up to be managing director of operations.

Keltbray owner Brendan Kerr said Goose was a “competent and capable” leader and added: “We didn’t want another master of the London market. He’s had a nationwide footprint with Ferrovial.”

In a post on LinkedIn before news of his arrival was made public, Goose said: “I leave [Ferrovial] in good shape and in the steady and excellent hands of its senior leadership team with a portfolio of projects in delivery and in the secured pipeline. I’m excited for what is next – for Ferrovial and for where I am heading too.”

Kerr said around 70% of Keltbray’s current business is in the capital but wants future revenue to be more evenly split with the rest of the country.

As well as traditional London commercial jobs, the firm is working on civils schemes for HS2, energy firm SSE as well as ongoing nuclear decommissioning work at Sellafield in Cumbria. It is also targeting civils work on overseas data centres.

Meanwhile, Kerr said the firm will leave its Esher home in October for a new office at 80 Strand in central London.

Keltbray is looking to have around 120 staff at the new location with around half of that number remaining in Esher – although at a new address in the Surrey town. The firm has been at its current office on Portsmouth Road for 16 years.

Kerr said it was relocating its head office to London in order to appeal to a wider range of graduates and admitted that convincing them to go to Esher was getting harder.

Keltbray, which posted its latest financial results last month, expects turnover to be flat in 2025 at around £350m for the year to October but is looking at lifting margins from 1.7% last time to between 2% and 2.5%.

Kerr confirmed Keltbray made the first payment of its £18m fine to the Competition and Markets Authority for its role in the demolition sector’s bid-rigging scandal earlier this year. It is due to make three more payments to clear the amount by early 2027.