Mott MacDonald has appointed a new chairman and managing director to replace Keith Howells, who retires after 45 years at the consultancy.
Mike Haigh will take over from Howells as group chairman, while James Harris has been promoted to managing director to fill the vacancy left by Haigh.
Both will begin their new roles in July. They are expected to focus on digital transformation of the business, creating new services for clients and integrating technology into all facets of new and existing infrastructure.
While Haigh is an advocate of digital technology, Harris has driven initiatives such as embedding carbon reduction into operational and project decision. He was member of the Green Construction Board’s Infrastructure Working Group, which produced the Infrastructure Carbon Review (ICR) for the Treasury in 2013, followed by the world’s first international standard for managing infrastructure carbon, PAS 2080.
They will also advance the company’s global wellbeing and mental health programmes and its approach to equality, diversity and inclusion – Haigh has already been named by The Women’s Business Council and Management Today as one of the top 30 men tackling gender inequality in the workplace. Meanwhile, Harris was named a Leading Ally Executive by LGBT+ professional networking organisation OUTstanding together with the Financial Times.
Both paid tribute to Howells who spent 14 years as managing director and then chairman. Harris said: “With Keith at the helm we’ve evolved greatly as an organisation, not only in the people we work alongside but also in the roles we recruit for. The digitisation of our work means we’re now often recruiting for data scientists, software architects and information consultants, which perhaps did not exist in our industry eight years ago.”
Haigh added: “Keith has been an inspirational leader and not only for our 16,000 colleagues. Over the years he’s championed and helped drive better practices across the engineering profession, especially in safety, ethics and equality. We all wish Keith the very best for the future, and while we know he is retiring, we’re delighted that he is going to continue to be actively involved in the industry.”
