After nine years with Highways England and predecessor organisation Highways Agency, executive director for procurement and commercial David Poole is on the move.
He joins HS2 Ltd in March as procurement and supply chain director, filling the gap left by the departure of Beth West, who recently moved to developer Landsec as head of development for its London portfolio.
Prior to Highways England, David Poole was supply chain director at GE Aviation Systems & Flight Control Systems.
HS2 Ltd chief executive Mark Thurston said: “His experience of managing large scale procurement and complex supply chains will be invaluable as we continue to recruit the contractors we need to deliver the railway on time and on budget. This includes four new stations, railway systems and the state-of-the-art trains that will run on them.”
David Poole said: “My decision to leave [Highways England] is a difficult one for me, but one taken for the right reasons in terms of my family and my career.”
He added: “HS2 will transform the experience of rail travel for huge numbers of people across the UK and provide a major boost to economic growth. I am excited to be joining the project at such an important time its development and look forward to getting started.”
Mr Poole will be based at HS2’s headquarters in Birmingham and report to the new chief finance officer, Elizabeth Gillbe, who joined from Crossrail just this month.
Elizabeth Gillbe’s appointment followed the departure of Steve Allen in the wake of a National Audit Office criticism of his unauthorised overpayment of redundancy packages.
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