13.06.17
Beth West steps down as HS2 commercial director to join Landsec
Another top-level executive at HS2 has left the company with only months left until work begins delivering the £55bn rail project.
In an email sent around to staff at the company, commercial director Beth West announced that she would be leaving HS2 in the autumn after four-and-a-half years in the role to join land developer Landsec as its head of development for their London portfolio.
Whilst the search begins for West’s full-time replacement, HS2’s CFO Steve Allen will assume her responsibilities as interim commercial director at the organisation.
“When I joined HS2 Ltd in 2012, the scale of what we were trying to achieve seemed daunting,” the email from West read. “No UK infrastructure programme had ever been this big and none had the geographical reach.”
She added that she had the “greatest confidence” that the project would be successfully delivered due to the enthusiasm for HS2 that had been shown by the over 5,000 businesses who had already been engaged throughout the supply chain.
Talking about her new role at Landsec, West said that she could not pass up the opportunity to play a part in the development of London’s skyline, something she has a huge passion for.
“Thank you for an incredible four-and-a-half years,” she concluded. “I wish you the best in bidding for and delivering contracts with HS2, I will continue to watch with interest as this enormous undertaking moves from the mobilisation phase into delivery.”
Today’s news also follows Simon Kirby resigning as chief executive of the company in September last year to join Rolls Royce. In January, Mark Thurston, European managing director for the global engineering company CH2M, was appointed as the new CEO.
At the time, Kirby said he had “absolute confidence” in the team’s ability to “deliver the project and, in doing so, to help transform the way we do things in this country”.
However, the latest new also follows a torrid procurement process for HS2, after CH2M withdrew its interest to deliver the Phase 2B development contract a few months ago, although Sir David defended the awarding of the contract at the end of April.
Top Image: HS2 Ltd
Have you got a story to tell? Would you like to become an RTM columnist? If so, click here.