The former chief executive of Balfour Beatty (BBY.L), the infrastructure group, has been recruited by the UK government to join the board of publicly owned British Steel.
Andrew McNaughton is among a crop of new directors signed off by Jonathan Reynolds, who was reappointed as business secretary by Andy Burnham last week.
Alongside McNaughton, the government has hired Jon Bolton, co-chair of the UK Steel Council, as a non-executive director of the nationalised steelmaker.
Janet Ashdown, who serves on the board of London-listed Victrex (VCT.L), and David Bond have also been appointed as non-executive directors to British Steel’s board.
Bond previously oversaw Sheffield Forgemasters’ transition into public ownership in 2021, bringing relevant experience of government-owned industrial operations to the role.
The appointments come as Whitehall prepares for a potential legal battle with British Steel’s former Chinese owner over the circumstances of its nationalisation.
Jingye Group has indicated it is considering turning to arbitration in international courts to claim as much as £1bn compensation over the government’s seizure of the business.
The company’s move into public ownership came 15 months after ministers seized operational control from Jingye, which had been threatening to close Scunthorpe’s two blast furnaces at the potential cost of thousands of jobs.
Along with Speciality Steel UK, which was part of tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s steel empire, taxpayers have so far spent close to £650m subsidising the two steel companies over the last 15 months.
Reynolds has also sanctioned the appointments of three executive directors, Kelly Jones, Allan Bell, and Brian Lochhead, to British Steel’s board, according to a Companies House filing.
The government is expected to run a process to sell British Steel back to the private sector sometime next year, marking a further shift in the steelmaker’s turbulent recent ownership history.
A government spokesman confirmed the board changes on Wednesday morning, as the newly reconstituted leadership team prepares to steer the business through a challenging period.
