I am looking for mentors, and names

Welcome back. A clean market split up top, the usual moves and news, and then something I want your help with. I am opening a mentoring strand inside the Lechley Community, and I am looking for both mentors and names.

From my desk

This week was less about filling roles and more about designing the team before it exists. I spent a good part of it with one of the major contractors I work with, building the hiring strategy and investment case for its health-sector push, ahead of any single brief going out. That is the work I enjoy most, getting the shape of the leadership team right before the first name is ever discussed.

Alongside that, the two international healthcare searches moved on, one in Toronto and one in the San Francisco Bay Area. The transatlantic pull I wrote about a fortnight ago is now just my week.

One market observation. This week's numbers made the split in the market plain. New orders fell more than 10% in the first quarter and output is forecast to shrink across the year, yet infrastructure, energy and water are still forecast to grow. The leadership demand is quietly following the pipeline, not the headline.

The week in construction

• Murphy was named Contractor of the Year for turnover above £500m at the Construction News Awards on 9 July, with judges pointing to a culture that pairs direct delivery with a genuinely engaged supply chain. In a market that is tightening, the firms that win on culture and people are the ones best placed to hold onto their leaders. (Construction News)
• New construction orders fell 10.5% in the first quarter and 2026 output is now forecast to contract 2.5%, the sharpest downgrade since 2022. Infrastructure is still forecast to grow, carried by energy contracts and the water sector's AMP8 programme. The market is splitting in two, and the hiring is following the half that is growing. (ONS)
• Hill lifted its contracting order book to £5.6bn from £4.8bn a year earlier and set out a £2.3bn growth drive. Privately owned builders with full order books are the quiet aggressors in a soft market. They hire while others hold. (Construction Enquirer)
• The New Hospital Programme confirmed its standardised Hospital 2.0 design will not be finalised until the summer at the earliest, another step to the right on the template that underpins the whole programme. The pipeline is real, but build your healthcare team for the delivery date, not the announcement. (GOV.UK)

People on the move

Angus Murray becomes Managing Director of Balfour Beatty's UK Major Projects business from September, arriving from the chief executive seat at Connect Plus, the consortium that runs the M25, with nearly two decades at Fluor before that. He inherits a portfolio that includes Hinkley Point C and Net Zero Teesside, plus the firm's push into small modular reactors and the reservoir programme. When a contractor hands its biggest, most complex jobs to an operator from the client and concession side, it is buying programme judgement, not just delivery. (Balfour Beatty)

Ed Egerton joins Balfour Beatty as Chief Legal and Commercial Officer, also from September, moving across from Acting General Counsel at AtkinsRéalis. He takes a seat on the group executive committee and picks up commercial, legal, procurement and company secretariat, as the outgoing Tracey Wood heads to SSE. The title tells you where the value is now. Commercial and legal leadership sit at the top table because that is where margin is won and lost. (Balfour Beatty)

A community special: mentoring

I want to try something with the Lechley Community this summer, and I need two kinds of people.

First, mentors. If you are a senior leader in UK construction and you would give an hour a month to someone coming up behind you, I want to hear from you. The best people I know all had someone who backed them early. This is a chance to be that person for the next one.

Second, names. If you lead someone with real potential, or you were that person a few years ago and could use a steer now, tell me. You can put yourself forward as a mentee, or nominate someone who deserves the room.

The Community is free, candid, and growing, and this is exactly the sort of thing it should exist for. If either door is yours, put your name in at the two-minute sign-up form, or just reply to this email. You are welcome to come and join us at community.lechley.com either way. I will match people by hand to begin with, properly, one at a time.

One useful thing

Read the order book before you read the job title. If you are weighing a move, ask the firm how much of its forward workload is secured versus pipeline, and which sectors it sits in. This week's data is the reason. Two firms can offer the same salary while one is riding a funded multi-year programme and the other is chasing work that has not landed. The number that protects your next three years is the order book, not the base.

What I'm working on

Beyond the community, my desk is still weighted towards healthcare leadership, with two international searches live in parallel. A Head of Health for Canada, based around Toronto, and a Head of Health for the US west coast in the San Francisco Bay Area, both leading the healthcare sector for a growing builder. Closer to home, a Design Director in London and a Chief People Officer brief are live too. If any of that is your world, reply and we will talk. You can see everything I am running at lechley.com/jobs.