Ian Grice

When alfred McAlpine dropped the Alfred as part of a rebranding exercise earlier this month, one commentator expressed his regret in terms of mock outrage: "Alfred is a great Anglo-Saxon name that has been taken with pride by some brilliant men – Alfred the Great, Alfred Hitchcock and Alf Ramsey, to name but three."

Alas, if the company's chief executive, Ian Grice, does not seem to see this as a laughing matter. In the opening salvo of his interview with Building he comes over as a man somewhat reluctant, perhaps, to reveal his lighthearted side. "We haven't dropped Alfred. The name of the company is Alfred McAlpine plc," he says sternly. "I'd like to emphasise that we are not dropping the official name – it is Alfred McAlpine. We're very proud of our name and heritage." So there.

Yet Grice, installed as Alfred McAlpine plc's new boss in August, has overseen a £350,000 rebranding exercise that includes a logo emblazoned with the lone name of McAlpine. Grice explains that this is because the construction arm accounts for just 37% of the firm's revenues today, as opposed to 100% a decade ago. "Today, 63% of the business comes from new areas, including facilities management, IT networks, highways maintenance and utilities services and so on, and we felt it would be better that these had the McAlpine part to it, rather than the Alfred, which has a strong association with construction."

Glad we got that cleared up.

Grice is far less expansive on the subject of the previous chief executive, now chairman, Oliver Whitehead. Whitehead ran McAlpine for more than a decade. So aren't his shoes big ones to fill? "Are they?" Grice bites back. Who's asking the questions here? Try again: As chairman, does Whitehead get involved in any of the day-to-day running of the business? "Very little." Long pause. Time to move on.

Since the interview doesn't seem to be going too well anyway (Grice later complains: "We're jumping around a lot here, aren't we?"), there seems little reason not to bring up a personal attack on him by the National Association of Pension Funds in May. The NAPF advised its members to abstain from a ballot to re-elect Grice, then chief executive-designate, to McAlpine's main board. The association advised its members not to endorse him on the grounds that his contract put him on a two-year notice period – flouting the City's latest thinking on corporate governance. The NAPF recommended a one-year contract "to encourage performance and accountability".

Grice says he has moved to a one-year rolling contract since becoming chief executive – but flatly denies that this had anything to do with NAPF pressure: "The reassuring thing was that the vote at the annual meeting wasn't really an issue – and it was overwhelmingly in my favour."

Grice admits, however, that "any plc board has to reflect any issues that arise from its shareholders". McAlpine's shareholders include members of the NAPF.

We have £85m cash, yes, but certainly not to play with, to invest very wisely, and if we can’t invest it then we won’t spend it

A further controversy into which McAlpine was dragged this year was the closing of its final salary pension scheme to existing members. This came into force at the end of July, although the scheme has been closed to new entrants – as is the case with many firms across the UK – for much longer. The move away from a final salary scheme to a money purchase scheme transfers risk from employer to employee. Useful at a time when poor stock market performance means that McAlpine's pension funds are suffering a deficit of £3.4m a year.

Grice admits that the move was bound to cause controversy: "There are only a few of us in Britain, I accept, that have closed the scheme to existing members. We could possibly have put this off for a little longer, but we took the view that rather than this death by a thousand cuts, let's face up to the problem, do it once and be adult with everyone."

He hastens to add that contributions that employees have already made will not be affected, and that they will still receive a proportion of their final salary, regardless of when they retire.

But for Grice, tackling the pension funds problem wasn't simply a question of avoiding millions of pounds being wiped off the company's balance sheet. It's almost a philosophical stance: "In society generally, we're moving towards a more adult relationship whereby we all have to take – I don't mean this in a dog-eat-dog way – responsibility for our own lives."

Dog-eat-dog might be how he would describe bidding for PFI projects. He moans about the huge cost and the long delays involved in these schemes: "We certainly ask [the government] for our bid costs; I can't say we've got them yet, but we'll keep asking."

Despite these costs, McAlpine is reasonably cash-rich. Grice is typically cautious about how to use the funds. Asked if it's true that the company has £85m to play with, Grice baulks yet again. "I think so, yes, but certainly not to play with; to invest very wisely, and if we can't find the right investment, then we won't spend it."

All that cash, but still no hint of a smile. As the interview draws to a close, there is only one conclusion that can be drawn: Ian Grice is a very serious man indeed.