HS2 headhunts top Australian infrastructure chief
The head of an Australian infrastructure firm has been poached to play a major role on HS2.
Nigel McKay has been appointed as the £50 billion high speed rail scheme's head of construction procurement. He had previously been procurement and supply chain director at Lend Lease.
Mr McKay left Lend Lease in December and took up his new role last week.
He will report directly to HS2's commercial director Beth West.
HS2 will start procurement for its construction contracts in 2015, with the first major contracts to be awarded after the scheme is formally approved next year.
Mr McKay worked for Lend Lease for almost 10 years after joining the business from KBR in 2005.
He was head of procurement and supply chain for Europe, Middle East and Africa until April 2013, when he became a project manager on Lend Lease's £1.5bn Elephant & Castle regeneration scheme.
HS2 will cut a 45-mile swathe through Staffordshire countryside where residents say their homes will be blighted by noise as trains run at speeds of 225mph every two minutes.
