Geotechnical contractor Van Elle has announced Mark Cutler is to become its new Chief Executive Officer.

Mr Cutler, who is joining the company from Balfour Beatty, will takeover from Jon Fenton who is stepping down for family reasons.

At Balfour Beatty, Mr Cutler was Managing Director (MD) of the UK regional construction and engineering businesses, as well as MD of the Balfour Beatty VINCI joint venture, with responsibility for the High Speed 2 programme.

From 2010 to 2014, he also acted as Chief Executive at Barhale Construction. Prior to this, he worked as MD at Morgan Est, the infrastructure arm of Morgan Sindall Group. He started his career at the Tarmac/Carillion Group (1990 – 2006).

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Before Mr Cutler takes the reins, Van Elle has selected Stephen Prendergast to hold the post on an interim role.

Mr Prendergast has held numerous interim management roles over the last 13 years, which have included assignments for ISG, Balfour Beatty, Amey and Network Rail. HE also has significant sector experience having also previously held executive roles at Costain and Amec.

Van Elle said Mr Cutler will join the company no later than October or earlier if a prior agreement can be achieved.

Adrian Barden, Van Elle Chairman, said: "We wish Jon and his family well for the future, and thank him for his contribution to the Company over the past eight years, including the successful IPO in 2016.

"We are delighted that Mark is joining Van Elle. He is highly regarded across the industry and will be bringing with him a wealth of valuable experience across all our major sectors, especially in rail and housing where we have many opportunities to build on our already strong market positions. Ensuring a smooth leadership transition process has been a key focus of the Board and we are pleased that Steve will be able to step in to support the management team over the next few months."

(LM/MH)