Our heritage

Mott, Hay & Anderson

Engineers Basil Mott and David Hay, having worked together since 1888 on the City and South London Railway, entered into partnership under the name Mott & Hay in 1902. Sir David Anderson joined 19 years later.

Their traditions owe much to Mott’s and Hay’s two mentors: JH Greathead is renowned as the foremost soft ground tunneller of the time, while Sir Benjamin Baker is remembered particularly for London’s District Railway and the Forth Railway Bridge.

Sir M MacDonald & Partners

Sir Murdoch MacDonald in his capacity as Advisor to Egypt’s Ministry of Public Works, was closely associated with the development and first heightening of the Aswan scheme which marked the start of a long association with hydro electric power development. Sir Murdoch retired from the Egyptian Government Service in June 1921 and returned to Britain where aged 55 years, he immediately entered partnership with Archibald MacCorquodale.

PH East (who had also been an engineer in the Egyptian Government Service from 1907 to 1926) and OL Prowde joined Sir Murdoch MacDonald in a partnership in January 1927, marking the start of a new era. The name of the company was changed to Sir M MacDonald & Partners and major new work started including the second heightening of the Aswan Dam, which continued through the design and construction stages to 1933.

Ewbank Preece

Ewbank Preece joined the Group in 1994 to take our power and telecommunications abilities into a new league. Its pedigree began when Preece Cardew & Rider, electric power and telecommunications specialist, was founded in 1893 by Arthur Henry Preece and later joined by his father Sir William Preece, engineer in chief to the General Post Office, Major Phillip Cardew, electrical advisor to the Board of Trade, and in 1915, by electrical engineer John Hall Rider.

Ewbank & Partners Limited was founded in 1946 by CHP Ewbank and colleagues from Edmundsons at the time of nationalisation of the UK electricity supply industry.

Both companies merged in 1983 to form Ewbank Preece, one of the UK’s leading specialist consultancies in power generation, transmission and distribution, desalination and telecommunications.

Hatch Mott MacDonald

To serve North America’s booming transport market we and Canada’s Hatch Associates established a joint venture company in 1996 called Hatch Mott MacDonald after a long affiliation which began when we worked together on Toronto’s subway in the 1950s. The company took over combined tunnels and transport operations in North America.

Hatch Mott MacDonald was then separated into two distinct businesses. HMM’s Canada business is a part of Hatch while HMM’s US business is part of Mott MacDonald. Mott MacDonald continues to operate in all sectors in North America including buildings, all areas of transportation, tunnels, energy, water, wastewater, communications, education, health and environment.

Cambridge Education

In 1985 Sir M MacDonald & Partners, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, had formed Cambridge Education Consultants (CEC) with the aim to provide the highest quality education consultancy services in support of educational development world-wide.

For many years CEC had enjoyed close links with Cambridge Education Associates (CEA) collaborating on many projects –increasingly in the UK where CEA was the largest contractor for Ofsted inspections and the leading provider of consultancy and interim management for local education authorities and schools. Marking the start of a new era CEA formally joined the Group in 2000 and our education business is now known as Cambridge Education.

Dalal Consultants

Dalal Consultants joined Mott MacDonald in 2001 to expand our industrial, multidisciplinary and social sector capabilities in India’s vast market. By this time, Dalal had grown to one of the country’s largest management and engineering consultancies with 750 staff specialising in infrastructure, industry and social sector development.

Dalal Consultants had begun operations in Ahmedabad in 1970 providing pre-investment advisory services to private investors in the industrial sector and to government owned industrial development corporations. After 20 strong years Dalal diversified its activities into water resources management, transportation and integrated infrastructure development once markets were opened up to the private sector.

Franklin + Andrews

In 2002 leading cost consultant Franklin + Andrews joined the Group to enhance our capabilities in management consultancy, project management and commercial management.

Founded in 1866 by surveying and architecture experts Thomas Franklin and John Andrews, the firm is the longest-standing company to join the Mott MacDonald Group. With 650 staff across the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific, it brought us all aspects of specialist consultancy in contracting strategy, supply chain management, construction cost data, benchmarking, contract advisory services and project finance expertise in the building, transport, utility and energy sectors.

HLSP

Moving into health had long been one of our ambitions which we achieved in 2003 when we were joined by HLSP, an international organisation providing technical assistance, consulting and project management focused on improving world health.

HLSP, established in 1985, works for governments, international agencies and non-government organisations including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Its main expertise areas include organisational reform and strengthening, sector financing and services planning, costing and delivery, communicable disease control, drug management, clinical effectiveness and sexual health strategies including responses to HIV and AIDS.

In 2005 we established the HLSP Institute to provide policy analysis, training and applied research with an aim of informing debate on global health issues, national health systems and responses to HIV and AIDS.

Euroconsult and BMB

In 2007, after many years of working together, we brought on board international environmental consultant Euroconsult and its management consultancy arm BMB, both formerly part of the ARCADIS Group. This natural progression supported our strategic objectives to grow our environmental market share and strengthen our service offering for international development.

Working primarily in developing countries and economies in transition, the two consultancies brought expertise covering land and water, rural development and ecology, plus management consultancy services specialising in institutional development for the public, private and social sectors.

Fulcrum Consulting

Fulcrum Consulting joined Mott MacDonald in 2009 to expand the Group’s building design offering, especially in the area of sustainability.

London-based Fulcrum had won recognition at industry and government levels as one of the UK’s leading providers of sustainable energy solutions for buildings and the built environment. The company is a founding member of the UK Green Buildings Council and has fulfilled a number of high profile advisory roles to the UK government, including seconding several policy analysts specialising in low carbon housing development.

Merz and McLellan

South Africa and Botswana power consultancy Merz and McLellan joined in 2010 to help us expand our presence in the African power consultancy market, enabling us to provide a strong combined local and international resource to meet the region’s power infrastructure investment needs over the next 30 years.

Merz and McLellan first came to the region in 1910 and its founders were instrumental in the creation of South Africa’s national electricity supply utility Eskom. Today our Johannesburg and Gaborone based power teams offer engineering services for the transmission and distribution sector, all types of renewables, thermal generation, electrical and mechanical inspection, and nuclear power.

Hughes Trueman, MPM and AWT

Sydney and Canberra based consultant Hughes Trueman joined in 2010 as part of our strategy to build an Australian base from which to expand across the Australasian region. At the same time we opened offices in Adelaide and Melbourne. Hughes Trueman had been working in south east Australia for over 50 years and brought us 150 staff in offices across New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, majoring on civil infrastructure including urban development and public infrastructure plus buildings and services such as structural, hydraulic and fire design for commercial, industrial, residential and institutional buildings.

We added Adelaide-based Mortimer Project Management in 2011, bringing specialist expertise in property and construction, and opened offices in Auckland, Brisbane and Perth.

In 2014 we were joined by specialist water technology and consulting company AWT based in Auckland and Melbourne – adding a strong water capability to our thriving New Zealand business in buildings and transport and strengthening our Australian water expertise.

Mouchel Energy and Procyon

To expand our oil and gas resources and expertise we brought two specialist consultancies into the Group.

Mouchel Energy, specialising in engineering design for the gas and wider energy sector, joined us in 2011 – a move designed to give us a strong base in the UK gas pipeline business to develop and expand as a centre of excellence to benefit clients worldwide.

Procyon Oil & Gas Limited came on board in 2013 to strengthen our ability to provide all phases of upstream oil and gas design, process engineering, construction and operation for clients operating in both offshore and onshore areas. Procyon’s diverse portfolio covers all project work phases including M&A support, due diligence/independent design reviews, conceptual screening/design, debottlenecking analysis, facilities definition, FEED, detailed design, PMT, project management, cost and schedule estimation, procurement, construction management and operations support.

Habtec Engenharia Ambiental

Brazilian environmental engineering consultancy Habtec Engenharia Ambiental joined the Group in 2013 as part of our strategy to create a regional base in Brazil from which we can offer the full range of Mott MacDonald’s services and expand across South America.

From its base in Rio de Janeiro, Habtec has operated principally in the energy, mining and transport sectors for over 20 years. Its project portfolio includes various environmental impact studies, compliance support, monitoring projects and environmental education programmes for major clients including international energy giants.

Bentley

Bentley, a design and build company serving the UK water industry, joined us in 2014. The move is a natural progression in the highly successful 15 year partnership between the companies through the joint venture Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB).

Over 80% of Bentley’s business is derived through MMB, which was specifically set up to deliver long-term, high volume programmes of projects for the UK’s water companies throughout the industry’s rolling five-year Asset Management Plan (AMPs).

Both MMB and JNB have won multiple industry and client awards for safety, innovation, client satisfaction, training and employee development. This next stage in our longstanding relationship will allow further development to enhance project delivery, while maintaining the shared ethos and culture that have been a hallmark of the partnership’s success.