John Alexander Armitt, CBE (born 2 February 1946, Edmonton), is the Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body charged with building the venues, facilities and infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic Games. The appointment commenced on 1 September 2007.^[1]

He is also Chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council from 1 April 2007 for a four-year period.^[2]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Work 3 Personal life 4 Recognition 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Armitt was born in February 1946 in North London.^[3] He is 6 ft 4 in tall.^[4] 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 Construction.^[3]

[edit] Work

He spent 27 years with John Laing plc, on various projects including the Sizewell B nuclear power station ^[5] rising to become the Chairman of Laing's International and Civil Engineering Divisions.^[1] In 1993 he was appointed Chief Executive of Union Railways, the company responsible for implementing the Channel Tunnel rail link. From 1997 to 2001 he was Chief Executive of Costain Group^[1], which he converted from an annual loss of £62M to a profit of £6.5M.^[6] In 2001 he became Chief Executive of Railtrack, and from 2002 to 2007 its successor, Network Rail^[3], the not-for-dividend company which owns, maintains, and runs the railway infrastructure in the UK.

During his time at Network Rail he was believed by a survey sponsored by The Sunday Times to be the highest-paid public-sector employee in the UK^[7]. Armitt’s salary and bonus of £878,000 - rising to more than £1m^[8] when pension contributions are included, overtaking Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail.

[edit] Personal life

He has a son (born 1974) and a daughter (born 1971), and two grandchildren.^[3] He married Mavis Sage in 1969 in Hounslow, but is now divorced. He lives with his partner.

[edit] Recognition

On July 16 2007, Armitt named a Class 43 HST powercar after himself at London Euston. The powercar in question forms part of Network Rail's New Measurement Train. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Civil Engineers. In 1997 he was awarded the CBE for services to the rail industry.^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• EPRSC
• London 2012