American consulting giant CH2M HILL’s new chief executive Jacque Hinman said last week that she would make the UK one of her top priorities when she takes over in January.
It was announced last week that Hinman will take over from current chief executive and chairman Lee McIntyre. McIntyre remains on the board as chairman. “We are very, very bullish on the UK,” she told NCE. “We have got 3,300 employees and will continue to invest there.”
Hinman and the rest of the CH2M HILL group board is convening in London in November as a show of how seriously the United States giant is taking the UK. “Our strongest markets right now are the UK, the U.S., the Middle East, and Canada,” she said. “But we are very bullish about the UK. Frankly, that’s why we’re bringing our group board meeting there.”
Hinman said the UK had “led the way” on infrastructure investment. She has personal experience of this, having moved to the UK for 2 years from 2005 to spearhead CH2M HILL’s London 2012 delivery partner bid. In that time, she also worked on Crossrail and Thames Water’s Thames Tideway Tunnels projects.
“One of the most exciting things around this industry right now is the recognition of the value of infrastructure, and particularly around cities,” she said. “There is a saying that strong infrastructure makes good cities great and great cities greater, and you see that everywhere. But Britain has led the way on a lot of that. It may be a small island geographically, but it has a big impact in the world.” CH2M HILL’s key focuses on the UK are the Thames Tideway Tunnel and High Speed 2 mega-projects.
They are projects that fit comfortably with the firm’s core markets of water, energy, environment, and transport. “I will be taking a stronger look at our core markets, working through our strategies, and making sure we understand where it is best to invest,” she said. Hinman added that she had every intention of being an “international chief executive,” adding that her experiences of working in the UK and Middle East were a key part of the succession plan built and enacted for her by McIntyre.
After securing the London 2012 job, Hinman moved to the Middle East to work on the Masdar project before heading back to the Americas to head the Panama Canal Expansion project. She returned to the UK briefly in 2011 to lead Halcrow Group following its acquisition by CH2M HILL.
International expansion is key for the consultant, which currently earns 35 percent of its revenues from outside the U.S. “We’re a U.S.-headquartered company, and 65 percent of our turnover is still in the U.S. But growth will come from strong markets outside the U.S.,” she said.