New commercial director at Kier as firm merges divisions into infrastructure behemoth

Kier has announced more changes at the top of the firm after Louisa Finlay’s appointment as chief operating officer was announced earlier today.

James Askew, who has been interim group managing director of construction after previous incumbent Stuart Togwell was promoted to group chief executive following Andrew Davies’ decision to retire last October, has been made group commercial director.

Askew arrived at Kier in 2022 after spending more than 25 years at Wates, having been brought to Kier by Togwell who was then commercial director.

And Abi Cooke, previously head of strategy for Kier Places, has been made chief of staff to Togwell.

Other new arrivals later this month include Martin Staehr who is joining from Laing O’Rourke to head up its construction business.

Also arriving at the firm this month is Tom Hinton, who has been appointed to replace Simon Kesteron as chief financial officer.

Meanwhile, Kier, has formed of a new Infrastructure division, which will merge its Transportation and Natural Resources, Nuclear and Networks divisions into one business. It will be led by Joe Incutti, previously group managing director for Kier Transportation.

Togwell said: “Bringing together our Transportation and Natural Resources, Nuclear & Networks is a natural next step for us as a group and creates a clear market-facing infrastructure powerhouse that combines the expertise across these two divisions and strengthens our ability to serve our customers.”

Kier is due to announce interim results on 3 March.