Former Crossrail Finance Director will join the Wates Group as the new Chief Financial Officer, it has emerged…
David Allen is set to join the Wates Group as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary next year. Allen, who is currently Finance Director at Crossrail, will take the role from the 4 January 2016.
Allen will replace the current CFO and Company Secretary Huw Davies, who has had the role for around a decade.
Davies maintained a robust financial performance at the company during some of the most challenging economic conditions seen by the construction sector. He will leave his role at the end of March 2016, two months after Allen is in place.
Allen has significant experience in finance. He has been at Crossrail since March 2009, prior to which he worked as the Finance Director for Laing O’Rourke at their European Construction business. As a chartered accountant, he has over 20 years worth of experience. He will take on the role as the Group continues to roll out an ambitious growth plan to increase turnover to £2bn.
Chief Executive of the Wates Group Andrew Davies commented on the appointment, stating: “I would like to thank Huw for his immeasurable contribution to Wates over the past ten years, which has facilitated a robust balance sheet and the Group’s healthy and consistent profit margin.
“David joins us at an incredibly exciting time in Wates’ history as we accelerate towards our ambitious turnover target, with work-in-hand now at its highest in five years and our order book up 50 per cent on last year.
“Focusing on our target sectors and utilising the profit generated to invest in acquisitional growth will propel us further towards a £2bn turnover.
“I am completely confident that David’s wealth of experience and impressive financial knowledge will help to steer the Group towards continued commercial success.”