Alan Rodger (pictured) is no stranger to thriving under challenge and describes his latest role as an “exciting opportunity to build on our success”.
Having started out as an apprentice engineer and benefitted from being involved in and leading on major projects across the UK, he joined John Sisk & Son in 2018 and immediately started work to expand the UK South arm of the Dublin-headquartered business into new sectors.
When Sisk was looking to grow its operations in the North, Rodger was the obvious candidate and took on the role in early 2020 – weeks before the first Covid lockdown.
After growing the division’s revenue fivefold, despite the many impacts of the pandemic, Rodger is now embarking on a new venture alongside his managing director role in UK North, leading a new business formed by merging Sisk’s Civil Engineering business units in Ireland and the UK, as managing director for Sisk Infrastructure.
Sisk Infrastructure provides an integrated civil engineering service across both sides of the Irish Sea, focusing on highways, rail, aviation, marine, flood defences, utilities and energy.
Rodger is confident in his unit’s potential, and he has plenty of reason to be. The UK government said in November that upcoming pension reforms could unlock £80bn of spending in infrastructure and “exciting new businesses”. And a month earlier, Ireland announced in its annual budget that a record €15bn (£12.6bn) would be allocated to capital investment in 2025.
Rodger also intends to look further afield for new opportunities. “There are many opportunities in our core sectors of highways, local authorities, flood defence and a growing energy and utilities market across the UK, Ireland and Europe,” he says. “When you think about renewable energy generation and transmission you immediately think about wind, solar and battery farms – but there’s a whole lot of associated infrastructure work that is needed to make that all happen.
“We are also seeing a growing pipeline of work in transport, through expanding ports, airports and local authorities looking to decarbonise their networks. Sisk has an enviable track record in these sectors that will help us support the growing workload.”
“What’s coming down the road, out of the governments, is the type of work that suits our skills and offers us the chance to build critical mass, invest and deliver efficiently for our clients’ targets around value for money and carbon reduction.”
Rodger says work undertaken under a €325m framework at Dublin Airport, where Sisk operates in a joint venture with Lagan, has set the firm up to compete for jobs in the aviation sector. “We’ve completed some fantastic projects at Dublin Airport, and there’s more work to come across Heathrow, Birmingham, Dublin and many more airports that we are well placed to support.”
Sisk Infrastructure will also look at projects on both local and strategic roads. “In the UK, the second iteration of Highways England’s concrete roads framework is being procured this year. Our track record in these areas is strong and we’ll look to build on that.”
But he believes it is the people at Sisk who will ultimately help him succeed in his new role. Rodger has a passion for supporting early careers – having started out as apprentice himself, he knows the importance of investing in the next generation. “Sisk is a fantastic family-owned business that puts its people and their careers first. I’m a product of that and want to help those coming through. The capability and experience that we’ve got across the UK and Irish business is fantastic. We’ve got really good people here and that makes all the difference.”