Firm sets up safety committee as part of move

Laing O’Rourke has rejigged its board and brought in a former chief executive of the Office of Nuclear Regulation as a non-executive director.

Mark Foy joins next month while lawyer Helen Ruelle has been appointed as group company secretary.

Foy was also chief inspector at the ONR with O’Rourke adding that he will chair the board’s newly formed safety committee. Ruelle was previously a director of commercial law firm Ogier.

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Laing O’Rourke has announced a series of moves for its non-executive board members

Other moves see Heather MacCallum, who first joined the board in November 2022 and currently chairs the audit and risk committee, become the senior independent director, and a member of the remuneration committee while Dr Hayaatun Sillem, who joined the board in March 2022, will now chair the board’s sustainability committee.

Non-executive director Charlotte Valeur and senior independent director Mark Cutifani have now left the board, the firm said.

O’Rourke chairman Ray O’Rourke said: “Our commitment to a model built around the extraordinary talent of our people is constant. The arrival of Mark Foy and Helen Ruelle, together with the expertise and experience of Hayaatun Sillem and Heather MacCallum will only deepen this rich tradition at Laing O’Rourke.”

Last week, Kier announced that Laing O’Rourke director Martin Staehr was joining to head up its construction business.

Staehr will sit on the group’s executive committee and be responsible for its regional build and strategic projects businesses, along with its housing maintenance unit Kier Places and M&E arm KME.

Staehr has spent 17 years at O’Rourke most recently as a delivery director working on data centres, justice and defence schemes as well as higher education work. He was also a business unit leader for O’Rourke’s M&E arm Crown House.

He joins Kier in January. O’Rourke has not yet announced a replacement.

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