Leighton Asia, India and Offshore Name New Managing Director

Leighton Holdings Limited announces that it has appointed Mr Ian Edwards to the role of Managing Director of Leighton Asia, India and Offshore (LAIO). Mr Edwards will replace Mr Bob Cooke who has been acting in the role since the appointment of Mr Hamish Tyrwhitt as Chief Executive Officer of Leighton Holdings in late August 2011.

Mr Tyrwhitt, said that he was delighted to have someone of Ian’s calibre to step into the role of Managing Director of the Leighton Group’s largest international subsidiary.

“Ian has over 30 years of construction experience delivering complex infrastructure projects within Europe and the Far East. He has been with Leighton since 2008 as Executive General Manager responsible for the development, management and operation of our business in the markets of Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan,” he said.

“I have known Ian for almost 5 years having recruited him to Leighton Asia after I assumed the role of Managing Director of Leighton Asia. Ian was known to our company from his work with one of our competitors where he had impressed with his approach to the management and operation of a civil engineering business in Hong Kong and Macau,” said Mr Tyrwhitt.

“Ian has transformed the business under his responsibility, bringing a clear focus on winning and delivering high quality projects and by building a culture of performance focus, care and concern for people, and loyalty to and respect for Leighton values. He has taken the Hong Kong and Macau business unit of Leighton Asia from turnover of $248m in 2007 to more than $700m in 2012, and work in hand from around $400m at December 2007 to over $1.7bn as of December 2011.

“Ian has a very strong commitment to and concern for safety. He has championed safety in the challenging Asian construction market, illustrated most directly in the widely recognised “Strive for Life – Knowledge and Skills Training Centre” in Hong Kong, which has been developed under his leadership,” said Mr Tyrwhitt.

Prior to joining Leighton Asia, Ian held various senior construction management roles with Gammon Construction Limited for 4 years and, before that, had 15 years with Balfour Beatty Limited in construction management.

Mr Edwards said that he was looking forward to the opportunity to step up into a broader management role with LAIO.

“I’m excited by the challenges that this role presents and I look forward to sustaining and further developing the strong performances that we have achieved from the LAIO business in recent years. We have a great market position with the broadest footprint of any international contractor in the region which should see us continue to grow in line with or faster than our major markets,” said Mr Edwards.

Mr Tyrwhitt thanked Mr Bob Cooke who had stepped into the role of Acting Managing Director of LAIO at short notice.

“Bob was scheduled to relocate to Australia and, with my appointment as CEO, he assumed the responsibilities of Managing Director on an acting basis. Bob has done a great job but it’s now time for him to come back to Australia as planned to take up a role in Leighton Holdings,” said Mr Tyrwhitt.

“The Leighton Group has great bench strength amongst its more than 53,000 employees which is providing opportunities for people like Ian and Bob to step up or to move into other areas. We have a significant depth of management across the Leighton Group as evidenced by the quality of the people that we are putting in place across the Company,” he said.

[mappress]
Subsea World News Staff , March 26, 2012;  Image: Leighton