Sir James Wates, chairman of the Wates Group that is owned by his family, announced today that chief executive David Allen was stepping down with immediate effect, to be replaced on an interim basis by chief financial officer Philip Wainwright.
While the company statement revealed no indication of a rift – with the chairman paying tribute to his erstwhile chief executive – there is no notice period to be served, no succession plan in place and no preparations had been made for the departure.
David Allen became chief executive of Wates Group in April 2018. He had joined the company as chief financial officer in 2016 and became interim CEO in November 2017 when Andrew Davies left to take over at Carillion (although Carillion went bust before Davies’ 22nd January start date and he eventually found a role at Kier).
Sir James Wates said: “During his time as our CEO, David's intelligence, commitment, and compassion has stood the organisation in good stead and in particular ensured that the Wates Group successfully responded to the challenges of the pandemic. The Board thanks David for his contributions and wishes him the very best for the future.
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“We have an outstanding management team in place, and we have the right long-term strategy – both to take advantage of market opportunities as well as to meet our objective of handing over to the next generation of family ownership a stronger, more sustainable enterprise.”
The board of the Wates Group has initiated a search for a new CEO.
The stand-in, Philip Wainwright, joined Wates as chief financial officer in December 2018. Formerly finance director at Wilmott Dixon, he has a degree in mechanical engineering and began his career as a graduate engineer with Balfour Beatty, before qualifying as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young.
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