Firm wants to speed up promised initiatives under plans by incoming chief executive Seamus French

Laing O’Rourke has promoted its structures technical director Rossella Nicolin to head of sustainability for its Europe hub as part of an ongoing rejig of its sustainability team.

The firm said she will take up her new role later this summer and will work alongside the firm’s Richard Coleman, general manager for HSE and sustainability at its Australia business.

Both will report into group director Madeleina Loughrey-Grant with the moving coming amid a wider revamp of this part of the business under Seamus French, the head of O’Rourke’s Europe arm who will take over from company founder Ray O’Rourke at the end of the summer.

Laing-ORourke-factory

O’Rourke wants to increase the amount of offsite manufacturing at its Steetley plant in coming years

Ruth Voigt recently joined as the Europe hub environmental leader from another sustainability position at the business while Sally Grewcock was appointed supply chain leader for sustainability last autumn, switching roles from elsewhere within the company.

Last March Samantha Hoe-Richardson, another ex-Anglo American bigwig who spent 16 years as its head of environment, was appointed independent advisor to the group on sustainability, while the mining giant’s former chief executive Mark Cutifani joins the firm this September as a non-executive and will chair the group’s sustainability committee.

O’Rourke said the revamp would allow it to “accelerate progress towards the goals it set last year”.

These include becoming operational net zero by 2030, achieving equal numbers of men and women among its 5,500 staff by 2033 and becoming a net zero company by 2050.