David Poole will become procurement and supply chain director for the high speed rail project when he joins in mid-March.

He spent has spend nine years at Highways England and was responsible for contracting, procurement, commercial assurance, governance and efficiency.

During this time he delivered improvements in supplier safety and cost efficiency as well as acting as the agency’s lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Prior to Highways England, David was supply chain director at GE Aviation Systems and Flight Control Systems, leading their commercial and supply chain activity.

HS2 chief Executive Mark Thurston said: “David’s experience of managing large scale procurement and complex supply chains will be invaluable as we continue to recruit the contractors we need to deliver the railway on time and on budget.

“This includes, four new stations, railway systems and the state-of-the-art trains that will run on them.”

David will be based at HS2’s headquarters in Birmingham and report directly to the chief finance officer.