Internal promotions
Our policy of promoting internally supports succession planning.
It is important to us to develop everyone at VGC to reach their full potential. We make substantial investments in training, and we promote people on site as well as office and senior management positions.
Examples of some of the people who have risen through the ranks at VGC:
January 2021
We undertook a major restructure to support our long-term growth.
Laurence Mckidd (managing director since 2010) is now chief executive officer. He will lead the development and implementation of the VGC strategy, and work with the teams to make sure we achieve our goals.
Ciara Pryce is our chief operating officer. She will work with all management teams on strategy and process. With her human resources background, she will ensure people remain at the centre of our approach.
Chris Ryan and Jacques Kriel become managing directors of VGC Labour Solutions and VGC Projects.
Reporting to Chris Ryan:
- Steve Kenny becomes delivery director, leading the civil engineering and HS2 north section.
- Chris O’Sullivan is head of delivery for the equivalent southern team.
- Richard Palin, formerly northern director, will be delivery director for a new process and power division, which will focus on supporting the green energy markets.
James Burke has been promoted from labour manager to delivery manager. He will be responsible for HS2 northern sections under Steve Kenny.
Ciaran Alstowe has been promoted to the role of customer success manager.
Rebecca Parfitt has been promoted to the role of business process lead for VGC Personnel. She will support the team in driving process improvements and support marketing, tendering, CSR and resourcing.
February 2020
Jana Romanova is now a labour manager. In June 2017 she was promoted to senior resourcer, managing recruitment for our labour solutions clients.
Alice Dupree was promoted from HR assistant to to HR adviser. She passed her CIPD level 3 apprenticeship in May 2020 after a challenging 18-month course.
Laura Perry was promoted to head of HR.
Richard Wheeler is now head of HSQE.
October 2019
Kimberley McGinty was promoted from skills and employment adviser to CSR manager. Kimberley achieved her City and Guilds level 3 award in education and training from Uxbridge College in August 2019. Kimberley supports schools across London with STEM career workshops and is a Team London enterprise adviser.
September 2018
Sudarshan Deshmukh has been promoted to the role of IT director.
June 2017
Bobby Hayre, who joined our graduate engineer programme in 2014, was promoted to section engineer. Read more about Bobby’s career and watch his video.
June 2016
Dan Parkinson was promoted to contract supervisor, focusing on Track Partnership and London Underground works. Dan joined VGC in February 2012, as groundworks foreman at Whitechapel. His team worked on the station civil engineering, including demolishing the old station, and constructing the temporary ticket hall and new stair shafts. He was promoted to section foreman in early 2013, and became a key influencer in June 2013.
May 2016
Tommy Hunter was promoted to operations manager. Tommy joined VGC in 2003 as a trackman, and then worked as a joiner on the west coast mainline upgrade. He became a contract supervisor in March 2011, and is now operations manager for north east Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear.
Anthony Iley has been promoted to take Tommy’s place as contracts supervisor for the north east and Yorkshire. Anthony has been with VGC for five years, starting as a trackman on the Nexus Tyne and Wear Metro project, with promotions to COSS and foreman. He also worked on the bridge renewal at Morpeth for Network Rail.
March 2016
Alice Dupree was promoted to Sentinel coordinator. She manages the Sentinel systems for all rail and London Underground workers – currently over 600 people.
Donatas Jausicas was promoted to contract supervisor. Donatas joined VGC in 2007 as a shuttering carpenter on the East London line, rising to formwork supervisor on Blackfriars and Farringdon Crossrail.