Sir John Martin Kirby Laing (18 January 1942 – 27 December 2023) was a British businessman in the construction industry. Martin Laing was executive chairman of

John Laing plc John Laing Group plc is a British investor, developer and operator of privately financed, public sector infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, hospitals and schools through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and Private Finance Initiativ ...

, the firm founded by his great-great-grandfather James Laing (1816–1882), but resigned in 2001 when the company faced major losses in its construction business, ending 152 years and five generations of family management.

Early life and education

The son of Sir William Kirby Laing (1916–2009) and the grandson of Sir John William Laing (1879–1978), he was educated at

St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate St Lawrence College is a co-educational independent school situated in Ramsgate, Kent and has been established as a " public school" ever since it was founded. History The college was founded in 1879 as South Eastern College (colours: gold ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

Career

In 1985, he succeeded his father Sir Kirby Laing as chairman of John Laing plc. His uncle, Sir Maurice Laing, had also been chairman. Martin Laing was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in the

New Year Honours 1997 The New Year Honours 1997 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

for services to the construction industry. Laing remained executive chairman of the family firm until 2001 when its construction arm was sold for £1 to one of its subcontractors, concrete firm O'Rourke, run by Ray O'Rourke. The John Laing construction business was considered one of the blue-riband contractors of its day, having built high-profile schemes including the

Second Severn Crossing or cy, Pont Tywysog Cymru, label=none, italic=unset , carries = M4 motorway (6 lanes) , crosses = River Severn , locale = South West England / South East Wales , maint = National Highways , architect ...

, the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

and the

Sizewell B nuclear power station The Sizewell nuclear site consists of two nuclear power stations, one of which is still operational, located near the small fishing village of Sizewell in Suffolk, England. Sizewell A, with two Magnox reactors, is now in the process of being de ...

, and its sale was expected to fetch upwards of £100m. However, the business was facing a series of losses, eventually totalling £200m, on several jobs including

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national rug ...

, the National Physical Laboratory, a disastrous PFI scheme in

Teddington Teddington is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 2021, Teddington was named as the best place to live in London by ''The Sunday Times''. Historically in Middlesex, Teddington is situated on a long m ...

, west London, and

No 1 Poultry No 1 Poultry is a building in the City of London, allocated to office and commercial use. It occupies the apex where the eastern ends of Poultry and Queen Victoria Street meet at Mansion House Street, the western approach to Bank junction. Th ...

in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. As part of the deal, O'Rourke left most of the problem contracts with John Laing, and created

Laing O'Rourke Laing O'Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, England. It was founded in 1978 by Ray O'Rourke. It is the largest privately owned construction company in the United Kingdom. History The company was founded by ...

. John Laing subsequently sold its property and housing businesses to

Kier Group Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...

and

Wimpey George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructio ...

in 2002, becoming an infrastructure investment business before eventually being acquired by US private-equity firm

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strate ...

in 2021. In the ''

Sunday Times Rich List 2008 The ''Sunday Times'' Rich List 2008 was published on 27 April 2008. Since 1989 the UK national Sunday newspaper ''The Sunday Times'' (sister paper to ''The Times'') has published an annual magazine supplement to the newspaper called the ''Sunda ...

'' ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, Martin Laing was placed 472nd with an estimated fortune of £175 million. Laing was chair of the Trust for more than three decades. He also served as chair of the

British Overseas Trade Board The British Overseas Trade Board was an export promotion agency of the UK Department of Trade and Industry from 1972 to 1988. It was set up in 1972 to replace the British Export Board.'The Penguin Dictionary of Economics' George Bannock, R. E. Ba ...

from 1995 to 1999, and chair of

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...

UK from 1990 until 1997. He was elected to the

Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers The Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers was founded in England in 1771. It was the first engineering society to be formed anywhere in the world, and remains the oldest. It was originally known as the Society of Civil Engineers, being renamed fo ...

in 1986 and was the society's president in 2008. Laing died in Malta on 27 December 2023, at the age of 81.

References

Sources

Burke's Peerage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, Martin 1942 births 2023 deaths Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers British businesspeople Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Knights Bachelor

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

People educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire