Appointment comes amid build cost rises and after pressure from activist investor to 鈥榚nhance鈥� non-executive team

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has appointed the former Mace operations boss Mark Castle to a non-exec role as it refreshes its board in the wake of the departure of Pete Redfern.

The arrival of Castle, who remains a non-exec at global construction giant Mace, comes as housebuilders face multiple challenges from managing increasingly strained construction supply chains.

Castle was chief operating officer at Mace from 2005 to 2021, and prior to that spent time as a UK MD of fit-out firm StructureTone and an executive director at Wates Group.

Mark Castle

Castle was COO of Mace until last year

As well as his non-exec position at Mace, Castle is currently a non-executive director at Eleco plc, an AIM-listed construction IT firm, and is chairman of Triangle Group, a private equity backed fire safety business.

Castle was also chair of construction industry trade body Build UK between 2017 and 2019, and Taylor Wimpey said in a statement he will become a member of the Audit Committee and Nomination and Governance Committee.

Taylor Wimpey also announced the appointment of senior Sainsburys executive Clodagh Moriarty to a non-exec role. Moriarty is retail and digital director at J Sainsbury plc, and will become a member of the Nomination and Governance Committee.

The appointments follow former chief executive Pete Redfern鈥檚 departure, and his replacement by former group operations director Jennie Daly in April. They also come after the resignation of two long-serving board members in January, Angela Knight and Gwyn Burr.

The appointments come after pressure from activist invest Elliott Advisers, which late last year had called on the business to change strategy, to replace Redfern and refresh its board. While Redfern insisted his departure was unrelated, Elliott Advisers had published an open letter asking for a new leader 鈥渟upported by an enhanced Board鈥�.

It had said the leader should have 鈥渋nsight into the construction process to be able to control build costs and optimise margins, tackle supply-chain challenges and deliver volumes in a continually evolving and inflationary environment鈥�.

However, Elliott Advisers had specifically called for a person with housebuilding experience to be appointed to the board.

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