Sir Neville Ian Simms (born 11 September 1944) is a British businessman and civil engineer who was CEO of Tarmac plc from 1992 to 1999.

Career

Simms was born in 1944 in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland, the son of naval officer Arthur Neville Simms MBE and his wife, Anne Davidson McCulloch. Simms was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in

Crediton Crediton is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. It stands on the A377 road, A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, Devon, Tiverton, north w ...

and King's College, Durham, which had become

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

by the time he graduated with a first class honours degree in civil engineering in 1966, and then completed a post-graduate degree in engineering at

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

in 1970. After training at

Ove Arup Sir Ove Nyquist Arup (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation offering engineering, design, planning, project management, and consultant, consulting services for bu ...

, he joined a civil engineering contractor, A. M. Carmichael, on the M9 motorway out of Edinburgh and, when that firm went into liquidation in 1970, the contract was taken over by Tarmac. He went on to become head of Tarmac Construction in 1988 and Group CEO of Tarmac in 1992. Simms became executive chairman of

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

on its demerger from Tarmac in July 1999. He stood down as CEO in January 2001 but continued as non-executive chairman until May 2005. Simms was heavily involved in the construction of the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

and served as Joint Chairman of TML for the last three years of the contract. He chaired the

Business in the Community Business in the Community (BITC) is a British business-community outreach charity promoting responsible business, Corporate social responsibility, CSR, corporate responsibility, and is one of the The Prince's Charities, Prince's Charities of Cha ...

regional teams in the West Midlands and the Solent areas and served as Chairman of the

Building Research Establishment The Building Research Establishment (BRE) is a centre of building science in the United Kingdom, owned by charitable organisation the BRE Trust. It is a former Government of the United Kingdom, UK government national laboratory that was privati ...

Trust and Deputy Chair of Ashridge Management College. Simms was chairman of International Power plc from October 2000 until its acquisition by

GDF Suez Engie SA (stylised in all caps as ENGIE) is a French multinational electric utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie. Its activities cover electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear power, renewable energy ...

in July 2012 and was chairman of the Thames Tideway Tunnel from December 2013 to October 2024. He has also served as a non-executive director of Courtaulds plc and was a Member of the Court of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

for seven years. Simms was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

in the

1998 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1998 for the United Kingdom, Barbados, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Christopher and Nevis were announced on 30 December 1997 ...

, and holds Honorary Doctorate Degrees from the Universities of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simms, Neville Living people 1944 births Engineers from Glasgow British chief executives Alumni of Newcastle University Businesspeople awarded knighthoods British civil engineers Knights Bachelor Carillion people People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Crediton