Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what due diligence processes his Department and HS2 Ltd carried out on the suitability of the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HS2 Ltd; and what that CEO's experience is of leading a major UK infrastructure project.

HS2 Ltd’s search consultants, Heidrick and Struggles, conducted a worldwide search and an advertisement was placed in the Sunday Times. Candidates were interviewed initially by Heidrick and Struggles and a shortlist was developed. The final interview was conducted by a panel of 7, which included the Chair of HS2 Ltd, the Department for Transport (DfT) Permanent Secretary, the Director General for High Speed 2, a senior Treasury Official and non-Executive Directors of HS2 Ltd and DfT. References were taken and the appointment was approved by the Secretary of State for Transport.

Mark Thurston brings a huge array of varied experience across 30 years in the infrastructure sector around Europe, and in UK rail especially. This includes starting out as an apprentice at Transport for London, to major international engineering and infrastructure companies The Nichols Group and CH2M. At CH2M, he was the lead for the Programme Partner joint venture on the Olympics and Crossrail as well as overseeing all of CH2M’s European operations.