Sir Frank Lampl and Luther Cochrane of Bovis will head the merged Bovis Construction and Lend Lease Projects, but Bovis' former finance director Simon Leathers will have no place on the board, Building can reveal.
The nine directors of the new company, to be known as Bovis Lend Lease, were introduced to 60 senior managers at a two-day integration conference in New York last week. Five are former Bovis directors and four were directors of Lend Lease Projects, the project management arm of Australian developer Lend Lease Corporation.
The top jobs of chairman and chief executive have gone to Bovis men, with Sir Frank and Cochrane retaining their former roles. Ross Taylor, chief executive of Lend Lease Projects, has been made group president.
However, Leathers' future looked in doubt after it emerged that John Nesbitt, former finance director of Lend Lease Projects, had been made chief finance officer in the new company.
Control over the new company's activities also reflects the relative geographical strenghts of Bovis and Lend Lease.
Bob Johnston, a former director of Lend Lease Projects, will oversee operations in Australia and the Asia/Pacific region. Activities in Europe and the Americans will be led by John Anderson and Bill Moss respectively. Both are former Bovis directors.
A company spokesperson said there would be fewer than 50 redundancies as a result of the integration. Most of the jobs lost will be among support staff in Australia.
The New York conference, which was chaired by Cochrane, was intended to kick-start a two-month integration programme and spell out the new company's business strategy.
One immediate outcome of the talks is that the Lend Lease logo, a blue canopy, will replace the Bovis humming-bird on site hoardings and stationery.
Lend Lease bought Bovis in October for £285m, and Bovis Lend Lease is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lend Lease.
