Former John Holland executive Adam Harry is planning to launch a new multi-disciplined construction business this week.
Former John Holland executive Adam Harry is planning to launch a new multi-disciplined construction business this week.
The launch, on Thursday this week, comes five month after Mr Harry surprised the market by resigning as general manager western region of Leighton Holdings subsidiary, John Holland.
Mr Harry was tight lipped about who would be joining him at his new business, Echelon, but said his fellow directors would bring a lot of experience and capability to the new business.
“We will have the capacity to do jobs from $1 million to $100 million from day one,” Mr Harry told Business News.
He said he wanted to challenge the established ways of doing things in the sector.
“We want to do things a bit different, be a bit innovative.”
Mr Harry said he had spent time between jobs travelling in Asia and that had opened his eyes to some of the opportunities, including around procurement.
“We are a minnow, we need to tap into the rest of the world to deliver better outcomes,” he said.
Subiaco-based Echelon will have five divisions, including a commercial construction arm targeting projects such as apartment buildings and hospitals.
It will also have a civil contracting arm, a modular construction arm linked to an international partner, and an upper-end residential division.
Mr Harry said Echelon would also have a project services arm, including design work, so that it could be a full service provider.
It would be different from John Holland, which was more of an engineering driven business.
Mr Harry brings almost 20 years’ experience to the new business, having worked at companies including BGC and Doric Group before joining John Holland in 2007.
John Holland was one of the big winners from the state’s strong construction market, rivalling Brookfield Multiplex as the state’s biggest building construction company.
Its last big win before Mr Harry left the business was a $257 million rail construction contract for the Roy Hill iron ore project.
Its largest recent projects include the New Children’s Hospital, the City Link tunnel, the Joondalup Health Campus expansion and a workers’ village at the Wheatstone gas project.
Asked about his resignation, Mr Harry said he was very proud of his achievements at John Holland but had aspired for many years to run his own business.
“This was always the long-term vision,” he said.
In other construction news this week, Stockland has selected Probuild as its preferred contractor for the $116 million redevelopment and expansion of the Baldivis shopping centre.
Construction is set to begin next month, subject to the two companies executing a design and construction contract.
The new contract adds to work Probuild is currently doing as the main contractor on office projects at 32 St Georges Terrace (the former May Holman Centre) and 863 Hay Street (Cloisters on Hay).