Tony Douglas takes on the Olympics

Former Heathrow chief executive Tony Douglas has played down fears of cost and time overruns on the Olympics construction programme after being drafted onto the board of delivery partner CLM.

Douglas, who joined Laing O’Rourke as chief operating officer two months ago, was this week appointed to the CLM board. He replaces his boss Ray O’Rourke, who has resigned to focus on growing his company’s international business.

Speaking to Building, Douglas said he would work to “mitigate risk before it occurs”. He said: “It’s clear this is an incredible project. It has got off to a fantastic start. However, everyone’s very realistic. There’s a lot to do, and the project needs to be managed with real pace, passion and energy. You have to put energy into mitigating risk.”

O’Rourke’s position as chairman of CLM will be taken by one of the other two directors – Mace’s Stephen Pycroft or CH2M Hill’s Lee McIntire, with a decision expected within two weeks. Douglas added that he would work with Pycroft and McIntire to give the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) “absolute confidence” in the way the programme was managed.