Graeme Smith has been appointed in a new role as major projects director for Mott MacDonald’s highways division. He joined in January 2020 initially taking on the role of project director for the A428, a scheme being delivered by Mott MacDonald in partnership with Skanska.
Graeme has 22 years’ experience in global consulting, delivering major, multibillion-pound transport and infrastructure projects in a design and build (D&B) environment.
Graeme has significant international leadership experience having worked and lived in Australia, New Zealand, Qatar, the UAE, Hong Kong, Thailand as well as the UK.
At Mott MacDonald Graeme will work with clients and project teams to connect global expertise in order to strengthen the design and build capability and capacity for major highways projects as the UK increases use of this procurement model and sees huge infrastructure investment. He will chair a new D&B Steering Committee for the consultancy’s highways global practice.
He joins Mott MacDonald from Aurecon where he worked for 19 years. Most recently he was their regional major projects director in Asia where he drove project performance improvements and oversaw a portfolio of projects accounting for 25% of the region’s profit and with a capital value in excess of £12Bn. This portfolio included the High Speed Rail (Three Airports) project in Thailand, Route 11 in Hong Kong, light rail in Mauritius, a materials handling jetty in Malaysia, power plants in Thailand and Vietnam and data centres and other complex and significant buildings around the region.
Graeme said: “I am a firm believer that D&B, executed well and with appropriate risk allocation, is one the best forms of procurement to deliver optimum social and commercial outcomes for mega Infrastructure projects. I am very impressed at the depth of technical expertise and the commitment from our people, and looking forward to harnessing our company’s culture to drive success for our clients in the highways D&B space.”
Graeme will be based in Bristol.