Barry McNicholas joined Kier in the summer of 2017 when Kier paid a reported £18m to take over McNicholas Construction, the family utilities contracting business founded in 1949.
McNicholas Construction became Kier Utilities, with Barry McNicholas as managing director.
Now aged 59, he has decided to leave at the end of December 2021 to pursue non-executive opportunities.
Barry McNicholas became a director McNicholas Construction in 2005 and was chief executive when the family agreed to cash in and accept Kier’s offer. It was the back-end of Kier’s takeover drive that nearly saw it come undone, paying £221m for May Gurney and £340m for Mouchel. A year after buying McNicholas Kier needed a rights issue, which flopped, resulting in a change of chief executive and change in strategy.
Kier Group chief executive Andrew Davies, who joined in 2019, wish him well. “I would like to thank Barry for his hard work over the past few years. Since Kier acquired McNicholas in 2017, Barry has been an integral part of our leadership team, and I wish him every success in the future,” he said.
Andrew Bradshaw, currently commercial director of Kier Highways, has been promoted to the role of managing director of Kier Utilities as of 1st December 2021.
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