Dive Brief:
- London-based Balfour Beatty has made changes to its C-suite makeup, as it brought two people into the chief information officer and chief procurement officer roles, the contractor announced on Sept. 5.
- The multinational builder tapped Jon Ozanne as its new CIO and Evan Sutherland as the company’s chief procurement officer, according to the firm. Both Ozanne and Sutherland were promoted into these new roles.
- Both appointments will support the company’s long-term focus on technology and innovation, per the release. Balfour Beatty sees the two areas as a strategic imperative for the construction and infrastructure industry, and it will use the appointments to create more improvements in safety, productivity and digital capabilities.
Dive Insight:
Ozanne joined Balfour Beatty in 2015 to lead the transformation of Balfour Beatty’s IT function, and was subsequently promoted to the position of U.K. IT Director. In 2019, he rose to the position of chief information officer for the U.K. Prior to Ozanne’s promotion, he was a trained accountant, according to the firm.
In his role as the firm’s new CIO, Ozanne is responsible for coordinating IT and digital initiatives, which include cybersecurity and artificial intelligence adoption.
Sutherland joined Balfour Beatty in 2015 as U.K. procurement director, according to the company. Sutherland will now head up all procurement and supply chain initiatives company-wide, while maintaining his previous responsibilities leading the U.K. procurement and supply chain functions.
Both Ozanne and Sutherland will report directly to Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty’s CEO.
Construction’s AI conundrum
The promotions at Balfour Beatty come at a time when both the company and the industry at large are trying to solve the riddle of how AI can reasonably fit into the sector.
“It is a pivotal time for the construction and infrastructure industry, with digital tools and technologies integral to driving the industry’s productivity challenge,” Ozanne said in the release.
During its FY23 earnings call on March 13, Quinn confirmed that the company was developing its own artificial intelligence-based app, called StoaOne AI, that had scoured 8,000 documents for information to pass along to, and help, project teams. The firm is also working with Microsoft to develop more in-house tech.
