In his new position Wilkinson will lead Laing O’Rourke’s established UK infrastructure team in the ongoing development and leadership of projects across key infrastructure sectors.

He replaces Gary Wells who suddenly left the firm at the end of 2015 after two years in the job.

Wilkinson joins Laing O’Rourke with over 25 years’ experience spanning all aspects of civil engineering, building and support services.

Most recently he worked at John Sisk & Son with former Kier colleague Steve Bowcott, involved in restructuring the southern operation. Before that he held the position of executive managing director of the UK services division at Kier where he managed a team of 12,000 across highways, utilities, FM, housing maintenance and environmental services.

Paul Sheffield, managing director of Europe Hub, said: “John’s experience and approach will be an outstanding addition to the Europe Hub team.

“I know his contributions will help us drive forward our ambitions of becoming a significant player in the infrastructure arena where we will be able to take full advantage of the huge schemes that we know are planned over the coming years, as well as delivering the exciting portfolio of work already on our books.”

As well as joining the Europe Hub, he will also lead the infrastructure board.