Balfour Beatty appoints UK Health, Safety and Environment Director

Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, today announces the appointment of Lee Hewitt as UK Health, Safety and Environment Director.

Lee will take up his new role on 5 September, following Heather Bryant retiring on 18 November, having spent eight years at Balfour Beatty.

Lee will be responsible for driving the company’s Zero Harm, Health, Safety and Wellbeing strategy across the Group, working closely with Balfour Beatty’s leadership teams and the Board Safety and Sustainability Committee.

An experienced construction and infrastructure leader, Lee has undertaken several strategic roles, most recently as Programme Director for Site Wide Delivery and Logistics for Balfour Beatty VINCI’s HS2 Area North contract, Britain’s new high-speed rail line and the largest infrastructure project in Europe.

In addition, he has held roles at the SMB (Skanska MWH Balfour Beatty) joint venture delivering the Thames Water capital programme, as well as the Head of Capital Procurement for Gatwick Airport Limited, Director of Procurement and Contract Management at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Head of Infrastructure, Project Management and Construction EMEA for Lendlease, and the Head of UK Procurement for National Grid where he spent 25 years. Lee’s experience will drive further operational focus and insights as the Group continues to deliver against its Zero Harm strategy.

Having joined Balfour Beatty to work on the HS2 project in 2020, Lee is further testament to the Group’s ongoing commitment to developing broad leadership careers through a strong commitment to internal mobility.  

Heather Bryant has been instrumental in progressing Balfour Beatty’s Health & Safety agenda, a core value of the Group’s Build to Last strategy, most notably, overseeing a 50% reduction in Lost Time Injury Rate since 2014, and the launch of the company’s Observation App which has seen over 750,000 health and safety observations. Heather has also been instrumental in many industry-wide initiatives including co-founding the Health in Construction Leadership Group to focus on treating health like safety and spearheading the industry conversation around mental health.

Leo Quinn, Balfour Beatty Group Chief Executive, said: “Health and Safety is our License to Operate and it is imperative that our teams are empowered and supported to deliver our Zero Harm vision. With his extensive deep domain knowledge and understanding of the industry from leadership and project-based roles, I know that Lee will continue to drive this agenda forward across Balfour Beatty, and I am pleased to welcome him to the Group.

“I would like to thank Heather for her steadfast commitment to making the construction and infrastructure industry a safer and healthier environment for everyone.”

ENDS

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Antonia WaltonBalfour Beatty

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Notes to editors:

• Balfour Beatty (balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group with 24,500 employees driving the delivery of powerful new solutions, shaping thinking, creating skylines and inspiring a new generation of talent to be the change-makers of tomorrow.  
• We finance, develop, build, maintain and operate the increasingly complex and critical infrastructure that supports national economies and deliver projects at the heart of local communities. 
• Over the last 113 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including: the £1.5 billion A14 improvement scheme - Britain’s biggest road project; Hong Kong’s HK$5.5 billion world-class harbour theatre project for the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority; and the 12.5 mile $429 million North Metro Commuter Rail line in Colorado, US.
• Balfour Beatty is committed to achieving Zero Harm across all our businesses. For us, Zero Harm means, no injury, ill health or incident caused by work activities.
• At Balfour Beatty we believe that our long-term success is dependent upon the ability to keep our workforce, business partners, suppliers, subcontractors, members of the public and the environment safe. Nothing we do is so important that it cannot be done safely.
• Balfour Beatty is rolling out preventative measure through safety innovations such as 3D and 4D computer models that are produced by our in-house Visual Design team, Balfour Beatty's project teams can test processes and procedures virtually before doing things on site.
• Balfour Beatty is fully committed to protecting the physical and mental health of its people. As part of this commitment to support, Balfour Beatty has continued to actively support two leading industry organisations; the Health in Construction Leadership Group (HCLG) and the Mates in Mind.

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