Associated British Ports (ABP) has appointed Francis Paonessa to the newly created role of capital projects director to support the delivery of its strategic developments.
Paonessa will join ABP in April from Thames Water, where is he has led a portfolio of projects with an annual investment of up to GBP1 billion (USD1.3 billion) per year. Prior to that, he was managing director of infrastructure projects at Network Rail.
Some of the strategic projects in the ABP pipeline include a multi-gigawatt floating offshore wind and green industries hub at Port Talbot; the Immingham Green Energy Terminal for the handling of green hydrogen, ammonia and sequestrated carbon; infrastructure to support offshore wind development in Scottish waters on the Cromarty Firth; the Immingham Eastern ro-ro terminal; and the expansion of the Solent Gateway port of Marchwood.
The capital projects director role will be a part of the senior executive team and Paonessa will report directly to Henrik L. Pedersen, ABP’s ceo.
Pedersen said: “ABP has an exciting pipeline of transformative and complex major projects to substantially expand both our trade handling and green energy enabling activities. The time is right to create a new role at the executive team level of the company, bringing focus and experience to what will be key growth engines for ABP… Francis brings deep expertise in strategic project delivery across a number of highly relevant infrastructure sectors.”
