Man at the helm when Carillion went under finds new role

The man in charge at Carillion when the construction giant collapsed has found a new role at the head of a Scottish engineering firm.

Keith Cochrane, who was acting as interim chief executive when Carillion went bust, has been named as the non-executive chair of £180m turnover Aberdeenshire-based specialist contractor Score Group. He was appointed at the beginning of the month.

Cochrane (pictured), was named as Carillion’s interim chief executive replacing former boss Richard Howson who resigned in the wake of the firm’s £845m writedown in July last year.

Former Wates boss Andrew Davies was selected to take on the chief executive position on a permanent basis in October 2017.

He was due to take on the top job a week after the contractor failed.

Cochrane was among the Carillion directors who faced fierce questions from the MPs running an inquiry into the contractor’s catastrophic collapse.

During the inquiry it was revealed Cochrane was responsible for increasing the writedown by £150m, with the company originally only wanting to write off £695m.

Cochrane was asked by MPs to explain why he increased the number by more 20% following his appearance in February in front of the select committees looking into Carillion’s collapse.

In recently released correspondence, Cochrane said he felt “the provision should reflect a more pessimistic assessment rather than a ‘likely worst case’ assessment”.

Cochrane has previously been the chief executive of Scottish Power and rival Scottish engineering firm Weir Group.

He is also currently the non-executive chairman of tech company Schenck Process and a lead non-executive director for the UK Government Scotland.