Andrew Wyllie (engineer)

Andrew Wyllie CBE FREng (born December 1962) is a Scottish civil engineer who was chief executive of the UK-based Costain Group from 2005 until stepping down on 7 May 2019. In November 2018, he became the 154th president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Career

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Wyllie grew up in Scotland, being educated at Dunfermline High School and the University of Strathclyde,[1] graduating in 1984 with a BSc in civil engineering.[2]

Wyllie began his construction career as a graduate engineer at Taylor Woodrow in 1984, working in Saudi Arabia, Ghana and the Falkland Islands,[2] and gained an MBA from the London Business School in 1993. After a three-year spell in business development at Taylor Woodrow, he became operations director of the firm's Africa division in 1996. In 1999, he was appointed a director of Taylor Woodrow Construction, of which he became managing director, aged 38, in July 2001.[3] After four years in that role, he was appointed chief executive of the Costain Group in 2005,[4] taking office in early 2006.

He helped stabilise the then financially struggling business, which finished 2006 by issuing profits warnings and cancelling dividends.[5] It finished 2006 with a pre-tax loss of £61.7m, by which time Wyllie was refocussing Costain on larger clients and pushing through a rights issue in 2007.[6] In March 2019, Costain announced Wyllie would be stepping down as CEO on 7 May 2019,[7] to be succeeded by Alex Vaughan.[8]

In December 2017 it was confirmed Wyllie would succeed Robert Mair as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers,[9] and in November 2018, he became the ICE's 154th president.[10]

A fellow of the ICE, Wyllie is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (elected 2009),[11] the Institute of Directors and the British-American Project. He is a member of the Infrastructure Board of the Confederation of British Industry and a companion of the Chartered Management Institute.[12]

From April 2009 to March 2017 Wyllie was a non-executive director of Scottish Water, and, since September 2017[2] has been a non-executive director of Yorkshire Water.[13]

Honours

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Wyllie was appointed a CBE for services to construction and engineering in the 2015 New Year Honours.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Andrew Wyllie Receives CBE In New Year's Honours". Costain. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Hansford, Mark (15 November 2018). "Thinking Ahead: presidential interview with Andrew Wyllie". New Civil Engineer. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  3. ^ "Builder's second new boss". Liverpool Echo. 19 July 2001. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  4. ^ Richardson, Sarah (30 October 2009). "Costain's Andrew Wyllie: Who wants to be glamorous anyway?". Building. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  5. ^ Attwood, Karen (19 December 2006). "Costain shares tumble 27 per cent after it issues profits warning". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  6. ^ Shelley, Toby (12 September 2007). "Costain confirms rights issue plans". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  7. ^ Prior, Grant (6 March 2019). "Andrew Wyllie to retire from Costain after 14 years at helm". Construction Enquirer. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  8. ^ Lester, Ahren (7 May 2019). "Costain Confirms Trading In Line As New Chief Vaughan Takes Helm". MorningStar. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Costain boss Wyllie confirmed as next ICE President". New Civil Engineer. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  10. ^ Nguyen, Anh. "Costain CEO Andrew Wyllie becomes the 154th president of ICE". Institution of Civil Engineers. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  11. ^ "RAEng List of Fellows". Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  12. ^ "Management". Costain. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  13. ^ "Yorkshire Water Services appoints Andrew Wyllie as non-executive director". Yorkshire Post. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the Institution of Civil Engineers
November 2018 – November 2019
Succeeded by