Lendlease’s UK construction boss has said he will step down, two months after the firm’s Australian parent company announced it would sell the business.
Simon Gorski, who has been managing director for European construction for five years, will depart despite telling Construction News last month that he would head the division until it found a new owner.
David Cadiot will now lead on the impending sale. He joined Lendlease as an undergraduate in 1995, working his way up to become executive general manager for the firm’s UK-regions business.
A spokesperson said: “As we begin the process of divesting our UK construction business, Simon felt this was the right time to hand over to the next generation of leaders to take the business forwards.
“Simon’s strong leadership skills and commercial acumen have been of real value to the business and helped us to build the enviable pipeline of construction work we have today.”
Lendlease announced in May that it would leave the UK construction scene to focus on its home market of Australia. Group chief executive Tony Lombardo said at the time that he was confident of selling the business by the end of next year.
The firm described its overseas construction markets as a “drag” on shareholder returns. This was borne out by last year’s financial results in its European construction division, with pre-tax profits falling by a third in the year to 30 June 2023.
This was partly the result of losses on a failed legal claim over hospital fire-safety defects.
Lendlease Europe also blamed “depressed bidding activity” during the Covid pandemic and a “complex market landscape” for its financial troubles.
Gorski, a 20-year veteran of Lendlease, has held several roles in its construction business, including executive general manager of UK regions. He joined as a commercial manager in 2004 after a 10-year stint in the British Army.
He told CN in June that he expected the sale to take place “far more quickly” than the 18-month timeline announced by Lombardo.
Lendlease has continued to win high-value construction contracts despite its looming sale, including £450m worth of barracks for the British Army from an existing framework.
