EY partner Becky Wood will take the reins of NISTA in June

The government’s new infrastructure advisory body has appointed Becky Wood as its first chief executive.

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Becky Wood was the senior responsible officer at the Department for Transport for the Crossrail, Thameslink and Intercity Express programmes

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) was announced last October and formally launched at the start of this month. It had been led on an interim basis by Jean-Christopher Gray, former official spokesperson for David Cameron and private secretary to Prince William.

Today NISTA has announced the appointment of Wood as permanent chief executive. She will formally take up the role in June.

A fellow at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Wood is currently a partner at the consultancy firm EY. Prior to that she was a commercial adviser at the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). 

The IPA was one of two bodies, along with the National Infrastructure Commission, which was merged in order to create NISTA.

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Source: HS2 Ltd

HS2 is currently the biggest infrastructure project being carried out in the UK. The picture shows a pair of recently completed extensions to the southern portal of the 10-mile Chiltern Tunnel to eliminate the possibility of ‘sonic boom’ being created by high-speed trains entering at 200mph

For 10 years, Wood oversaw major infrastructure developments at the Department for Transport, serving as the senior responsible officer for the Crossrail, Thameslink and Intercity Express programmes.

She also has experience working internationally on significant public and private sector infrastructure projects in Australia and New Zealand.

As chief of NISTA, she will be answerable to Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury.

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Jones said he was “delighted” by Wood’s appointment and called it “an important milestone for NISTA’s work in getting a grip on infrastructure delivery”.

Wood said: “It is an honour to be appointed to a role that has so much potential to make a vital difference to the everyday lives of people across the UK, ensuring robust delivery of infrastructure and enabling growth.”

Last week Jones announced a new 10-person council of expert advisors to support NISTA’s work.

The council will initially be chaired by Sir John Armitt, former chair of the National Infrastructure Commission. However, he is expected to be replaced in this role before the end of the year.