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Lee Rushbrooke takes the helm at Colas

New chief executive aims to provide value to clients via innovations tailored to meet their needs

LEE Rushbrooke has been appointed as chief executive of highway and airfield maintenance specialists Colas. Mr Rushbrooke was formerly deputy chief executive and takes the helm 24 years after joining the company as a trainee engineer.

In recent years, as a Colas board director, Mr Rushbrooke helped guide the company to a position of considerable strength within the UK highways and airfields sectors. Between 2007 and 2009 Colas’s turnover grew from £186 million to £283 million.

The company now employs 2,000 people in the UK and, as part of the A-one+ joint venture (with Costain and Halcrow), is the Managing Agent Contractor in four of the Highways Agency’s MAC Areas – the maximum any one supplier can hold.

Colas also supply the UK’s first highway maintenance PFI contract in Portsmouth. As business manager, Mr Rushbrooke led the mobilization of this £500 million project before joining the main Colas board in 2005 to oversee all of the company’s operations in the south of England. Following his new appointment, he now heads all of Colas UK’s operations.

‘Our key strength is in innovation, backed up by significant investment in research and development across the Colas Group,’ said Mr Rushbrooke. ‘Going forward, our strategy will focus on moving from service provider to intelligent service provider, in terms of how we work for our clients, providing value to clients via innovations tailored to their needs. The emphasis is on a bespoke service.’

 
 

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