John Armitt

John Armitt

Sir John Alexander Armitt (born February 2, 1946 in North London ) is a British civil engineer and manager.

Armitt graduated from Portsmouth College of Technology with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1966. He also holds a Masters degree from the London Business School. After graduating, he worked for the construction company John Laing (now Laing O'Rourke ), where he became International Project Manager in 1976. In 1987 he oversaw the construction of the Sizewell B nuclear power plant and he was the head of the Anglo-French consortium that built the Severn Bridge . In 1993 he became CEO of Union Railways, the subsidiary of British Rail who built the Channel Tunnel Rail Link ( High Speed ​​One ). From 1997 to 2001 he was CEO of the construction company Costain Group and restructured it, and from 2001 he was CEO of Railtrack and its successor Network Rail .

He is best known as chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) from 2007 as the successor to Jack Lemley , who was responsible for planning and construction supervision for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In 2014 the ODA was dissolved (after the Olympic Village was converted into new apartments).

In 2012 he became a member of the Airport Commission. He is vice chairman of the Berkeley Group, chairman of the council of the City and Guilds of London Institute, and a member of the council of Transport for London. From 2007 to 2012 he chaired the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. In 2013 he became chairman of the National Express Group .

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineers , of which he was President in 2015/16. In 1997 he became CBE and in 2012 he was knighted.

Armitt is divorced and has two children.

Web links

• Andrew Clark, The buck stops here, John Armitt, Chief Executive of Network Rail , The Guardian, July 24, 2004