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鈥淚 grew up in a large family: 10 boys, two girls. They called me 11 of 12. They can鈥檛 be bothered with my name.鈥�

Wates chief executive Eoghan O鈥橪ionaird likes to deadpan. Take his first name. To be clear, is it pronounced Owen?

鈥淵ou are pronouncing it perfectly correctly,鈥� he happily confirms when asked. 鈥淭here is a lot of redundancy in the name, but I鈥檝e explained it, I think, once or more every day since I left Ireland. That鈥檚 a long time ago.鈥�

Since then, he has lived in several countries and visited around 50 as part of a career that has seen him work for firms in Japan, the US, Germany and the Netherlands.

He now lives in Virginia Water, the Surrey village that is home to Wentworth golf course. His neighbours include the golfer Colin Montgomerie, singer Elton John and Gareth Bale, the former footballer, who for people who follow these things, is developing into a fine golfer.

O鈥橪ionaird admits he has probably spent too many hours with his clubs in the past. 鈥淚 used to be into golf 鈥� until I recovered.鈥� He explains further: 鈥淚 used to play a lot. I lived in Japan for a while but I kind of got tired as a player. You play with clients and, living in Tokyo, you鈥檇 have to travel. You鈥檇 get up at 4am, tee off at 6 鈥� to lose. Not good manners to win.鈥�

He grew up in West Cork 鈥� 鈥渢he middle of the middle of nowhere鈥� 鈥� on a farm. It was an idyllic childhood, he says. His parents were not farmers, though. His dad was a teacher. 鈥淢um was a full-time homemaker, a saint if ever there was one.鈥�

Aged 57, he has since worked for a mining company, an electronics firm, a life sciences conglomerate before eventually becoming CEO of a listed marine business.

Now the chief executive of Wates at the second time of asking, he has been in the role for just over a year. What does he, a genuine outsider, make of construction, then?

鈥淥n some levels, it鈥檚 a very straightforward industry: an investor finds the money, they find an architect, they get planning, they hire a main contractor, the main contractor hires the supply chain, they build it and hand it over.

The main contractor, the one at the top of the pyramid, they don鈥檛 make any money

鈥淚t鈥檚 much more straightforward from a distance than many of the businesses I鈥檝e worked in. You don鈥檛 have to invent things and, once you start building the product, there is no competition.鈥�

But, but, but鈥� There is always a but with construction.

鈥淏ut it is an industry that has significant long-term challenges, something that I haven鈥檛 encountered before. One of them is that the main contractor, the one at the top of the pyramid, they don鈥檛 make any money.鈥�

O鈥橪ionaird seems genuinely baffled. 鈥淭hey take all the risk but they鈥檙e the least renumerated. It鈥檚 a curious construction. At Wates we know how to make money but, structurally, that鈥檚 how it鈥檚 set up. That鈥檚 new to me. [Construction] is straightforward on paper, but we should make more money.鈥�

His previous experience of the industry was working on the Docklands Light Railway in Canary Wharf as a summer job, when he was at university. He was on a jackhammer. 鈥淥h my God, I couldn鈥檛 move my hands,鈥� he winces. 鈥淏ut I made a lot of money.鈥�

After leaving school, he stayed local and went to college in Cork, studying for a degree in electrical and micro electronic engineering at University College Cork.

But there was no work in Ireland when he graduated at the start of the 1990s, so he left. Things have changed since, though, with O鈥橪ionaird the only one of his 42 classmates now still living overseas.

鈥淚 decided that, if I had to leave Ireland, I would go somewhere interesting,鈥� he says. So he ended up in Japan, living there for four years while working for mining and smelting firm Mitsui Kinzuko. The job then took him to the US, where he lived in Arizona while working on a copper mine scheme across the border at Nacozari in Mexico.

He lived at weekends in the US and spent five days a week in Mexico. 鈥淲e were in a camp in the middle of a mountain,鈥� he recalls.

O鈥橪ionaird eventually left North America, where he also shuttled between Indiana and South Carolina, for Bangkok in Thailand, where he lived for a couple of years, before he was asked by Mitsui to return to Japan. 鈥淚 declined,鈥� he says.

Why? 鈥淲hy indeed? I think I was quite keen to get closer to home 鈥� Ireland if I could, parents getting older 鈥� and I think I felt in my bones, if I was to go to Japan, I鈥檇 probably never leave. It was a much more senior role, would have been a very good job.鈥�

He left to do an MBA in Switzerland, in Lausanne, where he met his wife, who is from Lebanon, before he got a job with Philips, the Dutch multinational, based in Eindhoven.

It was the first time I recall being in a business where purpose was so important. What you were doing had a reason

He initially worked for its mobile phones arm, which had begun adding cameras to its phones, before heading up its faltering MRI scanners business. For O鈥橪ionaird, this seems to have been a turning point in his career.

鈥淚t was the first time I recall being in a business where purpose was so important. What you were doing had a reason.鈥�

One incident in particular affected him. He was asked to fly out to a children鈥檚 hospital in Miami, where he was met by a doctor called Nolan Altman. 鈥淗ow can I remember that name 20, 25 years later? If you Google him, he鈥檚 a luminary when it comes to paediatric radiology.鈥�

The doctor met O鈥橪ionaird at the front door. 鈥淲arm handshake, 鈥榣ovely to see you Eoghan, I really appreciate you coming all this way鈥� and he walks me through the hospital and, as we鈥檙e going around, I know why he wants to see me. He owned three of our scanners and that morning none of them were working.

鈥淗is core message was: 鈥榃ell, none of them is working. By the way, last night the reason that鈥檚 important was I had an eight-year-old, it was a brain tumour, who came in for a scan so we could understand where to operate and I put him on the machine. The machine didn鈥檛 work and he died.鈥� That, I have to tell you, stays with you.鈥�

>> See also: Wates restructures construction arm and sets up major projects business

>> See also: 鈥楾he industry is broken.鈥� The soul-searching begins as London M&E specialist succumbs to familiar foes

O鈥橪ionaird spent a decade and a bit at Philips before leaving to join US conglomerate Danaher, a firm with an income of $24bn last year, for three years and then to UK instrumentation firm Spectris, shuttling between London, his home near Eindhoven and Germany, where Spectris has an office.

By the time he left in 2019, a recruiter had approached him about the Wates job, but he admits he wasn鈥檛 interested. Instead, he took on the chief executive鈥檚 role at a listed marine services business called James Fisher and David Allen, then the Wates financial officer, took over from Andrew Davies, now boss of Kier, who had left originally to take up the chief executive鈥檚 role at Carillion.

Since my days at Philips, purpose comes before profit and profit follows purpose. I鈥檓 a firm believer in that

But Allen left in autumn 2022, the recruiters called again and this time O鈥橪ionaird had a rethink. He agreed to meet James Wates, then the chairman, and James鈥檚 cousin Tim, who took over as chair a year ago.

So what changed his mind? 鈥淚 felt that I had given as much as I wanted or could give to Fisher at the time, so I was open to other opportunities,鈥� he says.

鈥淭he recruiters were quite keen to get someone who believed that purpose was important. Since my days at Philips, purpose comes before profit and profit follows purpose. I鈥檓 a firm believer in that.鈥�

He carried out his due diligence on his would-be new employer, even calling up friends from college who were now in construction. 鈥淭he feedback was uniform: 鈥榓 principled operator鈥�, one of my friends said. He was a direct competitor.鈥�

O鈥橪ionaird鈥檚 appointment continued a tradition of Wates going outside the industry to bring in new chief executives, with Paul Drechsler arriving from ICI 20 years ago and his successor Davies joining from BAE Systems a decade later.

鈥淭hey have form for hiring from outside. The shareholders are quite keen to not rest on their laurels and say, 鈥榳e know everything鈥�. Let鈥檚 bring in some other people, fresh pair of eyes, they invest in that.

鈥淭he fact [the Wates job] was in construction, I didn鈥檛 find daunting,鈥� O鈥橪ionaird adds. 鈥淲hen I was at Mitsui, I spent four out of five days on construction sites.鈥�

He says he went into construction with his eyes wide open but if he is baffled by how the industry works, he is particularly taken aback by its margins. 鈥淭he risk versus reward is totally out of kilter,鈥� he says.

His own firm produced a record set of results last year, with income up 15% to 拢2.2bn and pre-tax profit up a third to 拢46m. That鈥檚 a margin of 2%. These are record results, remember.

But O鈥橪ionaird is unfazed. 鈥淭here is a real opportunity here. If we add more value, we鈥檙e going to make more money. [Construction does] great and important things. Purpose costs money and we need to invest in our people, communities, supply chain. Each of which we do 鈥� but we can do more. But to do that, we need to make money.鈥�

Given that he has worked for firms whose pre-tax margins have been 10 times the Wates figure, he admits that 2% is a 鈥渧ery small number and it should be bigger鈥�. He initially does not want to say by how much, in case he ends up with egg on his face, but then admits: 鈥淚t should be double that.鈥�

O鈥橪ionaird thinks construction is more adversarial than the other industries he has worked in but reckons this all stems from the margins that firms make. 鈥淧eople who bid below cost?鈥� He is incredulous.

鈥淲e should outlaw that. That鈥檚 not the way to run one鈥檚 life. That drives the adversarial relationship because the guy who has lowballed has to get something out of it.鈥�

He has no truck either with those firms prepared to cut corners to save pennies. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know any company that doesn鈥檛 take its responsibilities seriously but no doubt we get some operators who are stressed and they feel they need to cut corners and we can act unprofessionally as an industry at times. That鈥檚 got to stop.

鈥淚t has created a bad reputation for the industry at times in pockets. 90% of the time we do it well 鈥� all of us. 10% of the time, there are people who let themselves down and bring the industry鈥檚 reputation down with it. At Wates, we have no time for that. We will not work with subcontractors cutting corners, being sloppy.鈥�

He thinks the 好色先生TV Safety Act is a 鈥渇ine piece of legislation鈥� adding: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a timely piece of legislation that will professionalise the industry to a much higher level. It鈥檚 long overdue.鈥�

But, despite being surprised by some of the things he has found, he talks with fondness about his new sector. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an industry that has a profound impact on society. It creates places where people live 鈥� homes, offices.

鈥淲e can have a very positive impact on the environment. Done carelessly, we can have a negative impact on the environment.鈥�

We鈥檙e all having a look at each others鈥�  balance sheets. Clients of all colours look at the balance sheet

Wates employs around 4,500 people and O鈥橪ionaird says: 鈥淚 have worked in some very good, professional companies and I would put the people we have here up against any of the others in terms of knowledge, competence and professionalism. I don鈥檛 think the industry is short of professional employees and leaders. It just needs the incentive to button things down to another level.鈥�

It has felt like construction has been under siege at times in the past few months, and O鈥橪ionaird agrees the catalysts for that have been the collapses of Buckingham and MJ Lonsdale last autumn. A few days after this interview, another name, Osborne, set up in 1966 鈥� the year O鈥橪ionaird was born 鈥� said it was set to go into administration.

O鈥橪ionaird says one consequence of these collapses is that firms are now running the rule over each others鈥� balance sheets much more than before, with due diligence being tightened up. 鈥淣o doubt about it. Everybody is employing [business analytics firm] Dun & Bradstreet and not just to get the one-pager. We鈥檙e all having a look at each others鈥�  balance sheets. Clients of all colours look at the balance sheet.鈥�

He says the impact of a firm going bust on a job can be catastrophic, with delays of up to a year in some cases. 鈥淚 can tell you, that focuses the mind.鈥�

He thinks some clients are better than others, adding: 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 come across any that I think set out to be a bad client. We鈥檝e seen a lot of stress from our supply chain, clients as well. Some clients have responded better than others to that stress. I鈥檝e not seen any set out to misbehave simply to get one over on us, but the stresses have been evident in some instances.鈥�

A little over a year into his role, O鈥橪ionaird has seen enough to come to a familiar conclusion. 鈥淭his is an industry populated by great companies, great people, hand on heart. We can just do things a little better, we can help ourselves a little better and we need to demonstrate our value a little better.鈥�