Severfield poaches Laing O’Rourke stalwart for chief exec role

Paul McNerney will take on his role at the steel contractor this autumn, following a rough financial year for the firm.

McNerney has spent 26 years at engineering giant Laing O’Rourke, rising to director of clients and government and during his career he has delivered major steelwork projects such as Everton’s new stadium and Oxford University’s Humanities campus.

During his time at Laings he was also managing director of Crown House Technologies, Explore Manufacturing, and Select Plant Hire.

He will take up his new position at the helm of Severfield in the autumn, with no firm date as of yet.

He replaces Alan Dunsmore, who stepped down from the role at the end of June after a seven year stint in the role.

Charlie Cornish has been acting as interim CEO, and in July the firm published its annual financial statement and highlighted a loss of £18m, attributed to welding faults in many of its bridge contracts, including HS2 bridges.

At the time, Cornish said: “While we performed well operationally, delivering a diverse range of projects for clients across many of our key market sectors, tough market conditions in the UK and Europe, combined with the ongoing bridge remedial works programme, contributed to weaker financial results.”