Sir John Alexander Armitt (born 2 February 1946) is an English civil engineer, and current chairman of the UK's

National Infrastructure Commission The National Infrastructure Commission is the executive agency responsible for providing expert advice to the UK Government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK. Inaugurated in 2015, and established as an executive agency of HM Treasur ...

. From 2007 Armitt was chairman of the

Olympic Delivery Authority The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for ensuring the delivery of venues, infrastructure and legacy for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games ...

, the body which successfully built the venues, facilities and infrastructure for the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. He was

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

for 2015–16, and is president of the

Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers The Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers was founded in England in 1771. It was the first engineering society to be formed anywhere in the world, and remains the oldest. It was originally known as the Society of Civil Engineers, being renamed fo ...

for 2022. He is also chairman of the Council of the

City and Guilds of London Institute The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies – to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has ...

and took office in October 2012. He was chairman of the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to univers ...

from 2007 until 2012. He was appointed chairman of

National Express National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction ...

on 1 February 2013. Knights Bachelor Insignia

Early life

Armitt was born in February 1946 in North London.Network Rail News Release
Tuesday 12 December 2006 ''Network Rail announces the intention of John Armitt to retire as Chief Executive'' He is 6 ft 4 in tall.BBC News Business
3 October 2002 ''Hard Hat time for rail champion'' He attended Portsmouth Northern Grammar School. He graduated in civil engineering from the Portsmouth College of Technology in 1966 and took his first job with John Laing.

Career

Armitt spent 27 years with John Laing, on various projects including the Sizewell B nuclear power stationThe Times
9 May 2007 rising to become the chairman of Laing's International and Civil Engineering Divisions.ODA Board
ODA Website. Retrieved 26 October 2008 In 1993, he was appointed chief executive of Union Railways, the company responsible for implementing the

Channel Tunnel rail link High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...

. From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive of

Costain Group Costain Group plc is a British construction and engineering company headquartered in Maidenhead, England. Founded in 1865, its history includes extensive housebuilding and mining activities, but it later focused on civil engineering and commerci ...

, which he converted from an annual loss of £62 million to a profit of £6.5 million. In 2001 he became chief executive of

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

, and from 2002 to 2007 its successor,

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

, During his time at Network Rail he was believed by a survey sponsored by ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' to be the highest-paid

public-sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, i ...

employee in the UK. Armitt's salary and bonus of £878,000 – rising to more than £1m when pension contributions are included, overtaking Adam Crozier, chief executive of

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

. On 2 November 2012 the Government announced that Armitt would be a member of the

Airports Commission The Airports Commission was an independent commission established in September 2012 by the Government of the United Kingdom to consider how the UK can "maintain its status as an international hub for aviation and immediate actions to improve t ...

. He is a non executive director of the Berkeley Group and was a Transport for London board member from 2012 to 2016 The ''Armitt Review'', an independent review of long-term UK infrastructure planning, was published in September 2013, and is Labour Party policy. He was appointed to the National Infrastructure Commission in 2015, became Deputy Chairman in 2017 and was appointed Chairman in 2018.

Recognition

He was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the 1996 Birthday Honours for services to the rail industry. On 16 July 2007 Network Rail named New Measurement Train power car 43062 after him at

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city rail ...

. He is a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

and of the

. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

in the 2012 New Years Honours List for services to engineering and construction as chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority. His

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

was criticised by the family of a victim of the

Grayrigg derailment The Grayrigg derailment was a fatal railway accident that occurred at approximately 20:15 GMT on 23 February 2007, just to the south of Grayrigg, Cumbria, in the North West England region of the United Kingdom. The accident investigation concl ...

, as Armitt had been serving as chief executive of Network Rail at the time of the 2007 accident. Network Rail were prosecuted for the incident on the same day that Armitt's knighthood was conferred.

References

External links

EPRSC

London 2012

John Armitt CBE FREng
''Ingenia'', Issue 27, June 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Armitt, John 1946 births Living people Alumni of the University of Portsmouth Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English civil engineers Fellows of the Institution of Civil Engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Businesspeople from Portsmouth Knights Bachelor Engineers from Portsmouth Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 20th-century British engineers 21st-century British engineers