Contract caterer Sodexo appoints construction director for Defence Training Review

Stewart will be responsible for managing the procurement and delivery of the £700m capital works of the new Defence Technical College which forms the heart of the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) DTR project. Stewart joins Sodexo from BAA Ltd where he held a number of senior roles in his 20 year career at the company. His most recent position was programme development director, where he was responsible for the delivery of the entire BAA capital investment plan. He also played a major role in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project as commercial director. Sodexo is a 50/50 partner with QinetiQ in Metrix UK; the consortium which is the Ministry of Defence's preferred bidder for the DTR project. This is the MoD's biggest Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project and the new college will be the largest vocational training facility in the country. It will deliver specialist technical training to the three armed services at a purpose-built campus at St Athan, South Wales. Stewart commented on his new position: "I am very excited to be joining Sodexo to drive forward the great work the DTR team have produced to date, through procurement into the delivery phase of what is undoubtedly a project of considerable national significance." Tom Anderson, Sodexo commercial director DTR, added: "Rob brings to Sodexo an abundance of expertise and commercial acumen in the delivery of major capital works programmes. I would like to welcome him to the business and I look forward to working with him at this exciting time in the DTR project."