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

National Infrastructure Commission The National Infrastructure Commission was an executive agency responsible for providing expert advice to the UK Government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK, between 2015 and April 2025, when it was superseded by the National Infra ...

. 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 organised the building of 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, were 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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the

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

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 was 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 be ...

from 2012 to 2021, He was chairman of the

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

from 2007 until 2012. He was chairman of

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

from January 2013 until December 2022. He was in post when the last fatality of a passenger on a rail service prior to Stonehaven in 2020 - which occurred in 2007 at Grayrigg - which was later proved to be caused by engineering and testing failures by Network Rail. 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 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 station Sizewell is an English fishing hamlet in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It belongs to the civil parish of Leiston and lies on the North Sea coast just north of the larger holiday village of Thorpeness, between the coastal town ...

The 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), officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of the line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Euro ...

. From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive of

Costain Group Costain Group plc is a British construction and engineering company headquartered in London, England. It was established by Richard Costain and Richard Kneen in 1865, initially operating as builders in and around Lancashire. During the early 2 ...

, 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 railroad, track, railway signalling, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the railway station, stations of the Transport in England#Rail, British railway syste ...

, 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 railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

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

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday 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 N ...

'' 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, pub ...

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 Adam Alexander Crozier (born 26 January 1964) is a Scottish businessman who was formerly the chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the ITV television network covering most of the United Kingdom. After a career at Saatc ...

, chief executive of

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

. 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 could "maintain its status as an international hub for aviation and immediate actions to improve ...

. He is a non executive director of the Berkeley Group and was a

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

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. In January 2023, his appointment as chairman was renewed for a further two years, through to January 2025. In October 2024, his term was extended by a further six months to oversee development of a 10-year strategy and the creation of the NIC's successor, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). Also in January 2023, he was appointed as a non-executive director on the board of

Tilbury Douglas Tilbury Douglas is a British construction business with its head office in London. The company was originally founded in 1884 as the London and Tilbury Lighterage Company Limited, and retained the Tilbury name until 2001. From 1991 it was know ...

's parent company, TD Bidco, owned and controlled by shareholders of

Interserve Interserve was a British construction and support services business based in Reading, Berkshire, which went into administration in 2019 and was formally wound up in 2022. In 2019 the group generated revenue of £2.2 billion and had a workforce ...

Recognition

Armitt 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

1996 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in suppl ...

for services to the rail industry. On 16 July 2007 Network Rail named

New Measurement Train The New Measurement Train (NMT), nicknamed the ''Flying Banana'', is a specialised train which operates in the United Kingdom to assess the condition of Rail tracks, track so that engineers can determine where to work. It is a specially converte ...

power car 43062 after him at

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line ...

. He is a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

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 senio ...

and of the

. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a 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. The concept of a knighthood ...

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

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a 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. The concept of a knighthood ...

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 con ...

, 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 English engineers 21st-century English engineers