Companies

Bouygues UK welcomes back Rob Bradley as chief executive

Bouygues UK has appointed former regional managing director Rob Bradley as its chief executive following the resignation of Lionel Christolomme this month.

Christolomme has left the company after 28 years’ service and is returning to France to pursue projects outside of the group. He was promoted to deputy chief executive in 2014 and chief executive in 2015.

Bradley, who holds a civil engineering degree from the University of Leeds, joined Bouygues in 2012 as a result of its acquisition of regional contractor Leadbitter, where he was the chief executive. He left in 2016 to become executive director of Midas Group, a Bristol-based construction and property services company, although they parted company last September.

Over the past 30 years, Bradley has held a number of senior roles, including managing director of Willmott Dixon and Pearce Construction and division manager at Shepherd.

Bradley said: "With some of the most interesting, high profile and technically complex projects under way across the UK, Bouygues UK is a dynamic business and I am thrilled to become its chief executive officer."

Bouygues UK, in common with a number of other contractors in Britain, has had difficulty making its contracts pay in recent years. It made a loss of £15m in 2015, and another of £78m in 2016, necessitating a £79m equity injection from its French parent.

At the time, Chairwoman Fabienne Viala blamed the disappointing result on "challenging market conditions, including inflation in supply chain costs".

Image: Bouygues won a £120m Cardiff innovation campus in June (Bouygues UK)

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