O'Rourke boss moves to EC Harris

CJ has learned that Laing O'Rourke's head of procurement Matt Riley, a former commercial director of Heathrow Terminal 5, has resigned to take up the post of group head of cost and commercial at EC Harris on 1 November.

In a sign of further change at the company, it announced that it would appoint former Carillion director Roger Robinson to chair European board meetings. It is not clear whether chief operating officer Tony Douglas, who is responsible for leading the European Hub’s strategy, will report to him.

And Ray O’Rourke’s son Cathal O’Rourke, who cut his teeth as a manager on the £2.5bn construction of T5, is to become second-in-command to Andrew Wilson, executive chairman of Laing O’Rourke Australia.

A source close to the company said: “Everyone now is going to have to concentrate on winning work and making money from that work. What’s happening is similar to rationalisations other contractors have gone through, it’s just the case that the numbers are much higher here because we employ so many more people than our rivals.”

Laing O’Rourke declined to comment.