What happened

Rugby-based contractor Stepnell has appointed Simon Gorski as managing director of its construction business, Construction News reported. Gorski spent two decades at Lendlease, most recently running its Bovis construction arm across Europe between 2019 and 2024, and brings more than thirty years across construction, defence, justice and healthcare programmes, including central government work.

The hire comes as Stepnell pushes through a growth phase, having lifted turnover to £150m with a further 20 per cent rise forecast for the current year, according to the same report.

Why it matters

This is a mid-tier regional contractor pulling in a leader whose entire career has been spent at one of the largest construction businesses in the world. That flow of talent, from major international contractor down to a £150m regional player, tells you something about where confidence and opportunity currently sit in the market. Big contractors offer scale and brand, but the biggest programmes also come with the most bureaucracy and the least individual autonomy. A business like Stepnell, growing fast and needing someone who has already run large, complex portfolios, can offer a level of influence over strategy and delivery that would take far longer to reach inside a Lendlease or a Mace.

It also tells you Stepnell's ambitions are not staying regional. Gorski's background across defence, justice and healthcare framework delivery suggests the business intends to compete for larger public sector programmes than it has historically won, rather than just growing its existing housing and education workload.

What it means for your career

Watch mid-tier contractors going through this kind of leadership refresh closely, particularly if you are a project manager, commercial manager or bid professional based in the Midlands or looking to move out of a major contractor's shadow. New leadership brought in from a bigger business almost always means a period of team-building underneath them: new commercial directors, framework bid leads and senior QSs to support a step up in contract size and complexity.

If your background is in defence, justice or healthcare delivery and you are currently at a tier-one contractor with limited progression on the horizon, a business like Stepnell going through this kind of growth is worth a direct approach even before roles are advertised. Regional contractors scaling up their public sector capability need people who already understand how those frameworks and clients operate, and they are often willing to move faster on seniority and pay to get that experience in the door than a business your size would need to. For anyone weighing a move from a major contractor to a mid-tier one, an appointment like this is a useful marker that that route is not a step down, it can be a step up in responsibility.