Brown takes up the chief role in September from Julian Ripley who has led the Barhale business as interim chief executive since June last year.

Ripley will resume his former role as chief financial officer.

Brown leaves after nine years at Keltbray. Prior to that, he operated as a project director for Balfour Beatty on several major rail and infrastructure projects.

Barhale Chairman Dennis Curran said: “Martin has a proven track record of delivering first-class services across the rail and infrastructure sectors.

“In the process, he has both added value to client relationships and improved bottom line performance.”

“Barhale is an engineering-led business and I wanted to ensure that this was the core discipline of our new leader.”

He added: “I would like to offer my sincere thanks to Julian Ripley who has provided such excellent stewardship of the business over the last year against the background of Covid-19 and the AMP transition.”

Brown said, “My priority will be to lead Barhale into its next phase of growth, building on the strength of its family-orientated core values and existing client relationships.”

“Barhale’s direct delivery model and proven project delivery provides a solid platform for sustainable growth,” said Brown.

• Keltbray also announced today that Neil Thompson, former commercial director at Crossrail, will replace Brown as its new Managing Director – Rail.

Thompson, who also spent nearly 16 years at Network Rail most latterly as programme director of construction, will report to Phil Price, Managing Director – Infrastructure.

He joins immediately and will carry out a transition period with Brown until September.