John Armitt CBE has been appointed Chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the body charged with building the key venues, facilities and infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.
Announcing the appointment, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said: “John Armitt will be an outstanding leader of a world class team at the Olympic Delivery Authority. He has a formidable amount of experience in engineering and construction, and is so well placed to lead an organisation charged with delivering one of the biggest and most complex building and regeneration projects this country has ever seen.
“I am confident that under John’s leadership, the ODA will ensure that London 2012 will be remembered not only for fantastic sport, but also inspiring venues, a legacy of world class sporting facilities, and the regeneration of one of the most deprived areas of the UK.
“I would also like to pay tribute to the excellent work that Sir Roy McNulty has done as Acting Chair since October. Under his stewardship the ODA has gone from strength to strength and is now in an excellent position to meet the next challenges ahead. I am delighted that Roy will continue as Deputy Chair.”
Mr Armitt has been Chief Executive of Network Rail since October 2002. A civil engineer by training, he was previously Chief Executive of Costain Group and Union Railways.
Mr Armitt said: “It is a tremendous honour to be appointed Chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority. The Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 will be the most exciting event to take place in this country in our lifetime.
“The ODA has a critical part to play in delivering the venues and infrastructure, not just for the Games but for generations to come. It has made a very good start to this hugely challenging project and I look forward to providing leadership as the programme now moves to the next stage.”
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: “We have always been committed to building the best team to deliver the venues for 2012 and John Armitt’s extensive construction experience on major infrastructure projects will be invaluable towards achieving our goal of staging the greatest games ever and transforming East London and the lives of all the communities that live there. I look forward to working with John over the next exciting and challenging few years.
The ODA has met all its major milestones to date and recently published a new set of targets it is aiming to achieve by the time of the 2008 Beijing Games next summer. This phase – called ‘Demolish, Dig, Design’ – includes the cleaning up and clearing of the Olympic Park site, the building of bridges and roads, improvements of transport links, and preparations for venue construction.