J. Murphy & Sons has appointed former Laing O'Rourke chief Russell Kellett as its new group operations director.

In his new role, Mr Kellett will develop Murphy's specialist contracting and service delivery streams.

He will also be responsible for the company's planning, productivity and project controls capabilities, measure and strengthen project and construction management, and will be the executive sponsor for the company's directly employed workforce.

Previously, Mr Kellett held a number of senior roles at Laing O'Rourke, including overseeing the new district general hospital project for NHS Dumfries and Galloway, due in 2017.

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He also worked as operations director for Laing O'Rourke in the Middle East.

In addition, Paul Mohan and Jim Yerkess are promoted to sector director for rail and operations director in the north, respectively.

Mr Mohan joined the company in 1993 as an engineer and has held various management roles, most recently as project director for Network Rail’s CP5 framework.

Mr Yerkess joined in 2010 as framework construction manager as part of KMI Plus – a joint venture between Kier Infrastructure and Overseas, Murphy, Interserve Construction and Mouchel – on a £490m framework for United Utilities in the north west of England.

Steve Hollingshead, chief executive of Murphy, said: "There are many exciting changes happening in Murphy and these new appointments show not only that we already have excellent and experienced people working for us but also that Murphy is attracting the best industry talent."

[Pictured: Murphy group operations director Russell Kellett]

(LM/MH)