EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
That’s not to say there weren’t
numerous opportunities for the
company’s name to change or
disappear over the years, as the firm
met with the threat of absorption by
new parent companies. Despite having
faced new ownership on three separate
occasions since 1990, the historic brand
name and its connotations were always
maintained. After several decades of
growth and diversification, Janet
Holmes à Court’s Heytesbury acquired
the John Holland Group, and over the
ensuing nine years the company
secured a $180 million contract to
construct a Toyota car manufacturing
plant in Altona, Victoria, and expanded
into rail with its first major rail
maintenance and construction
contracts with Wesrail and the Asia
Pacific Transport Consortium.In 2000, John Holland’s majority
shareholder, Leighton Holdings,
acquired 70 per cent of the business,
and four years later the group was
awarded the $2.5 billion EastLink
project, in conjunction with Theiss.
Just last year, John Holland was again
purchased, this time by an
international corporation, the China
Communications Construction
Company (CCCC). “During the
acquisition process, we enquired as to
CCCC’s intentions in relation to
maintaining the John Holland name.
Their response was an unequivocal ‘Of
course we want to keep it’ — the
brand, the history, the reputation, the
people — that’s a large part of why
we’re so interested.’”A veteran of the industry, Glenn has
been in construction and engineering
for more than thirty-five years, the
majority of this time served with John
Holland Group. Having retired in
November, Glenn looks back on his
time with the company. “I was lucky
enough to have met Sir John Holland
during my early time here, and thevalues that he has enshrined around
fairness and quality and supporting our
people are still evident today. I’m proud
to have been around to see how we
have grown over the last twenty years,
and to have played a part in that.”Before being appointed CEO, Glenn
played a number of roles in the
business, including COO, Executive
General Manager for Specialist
Businesses, regional manager, and other
operational roles.When Glenn first joined the company
in 1993, annual turnover was around
$300–400 million, with anywhere
between 700 and 1,000 staff, depending
on workloads and market activity.
Today, turnover regularly exceeds
$4 billion, and Glenn heads up a
5,000-plus team that works across
approximately 100 projects at any onetime. The group won the 2014 Australian
Construction Achievement Award for its
Cape Lambert Marine Works project,
and in 2015 again won the Award for its
Victorian Regional Rail Link project.
All the while the company has continued
to uphold its key values around integrity,
collaboration, care, accountability
and innovation.Looking ahead, John Holland Group is
expected to continue to prosper, with
new CEO Joe Barr beginning to lace up
the large shoes he must fill following
Glenn’s departure from the company.
CCCC’s ownership has presented many“During the acquisition process, we enquired as to CCCC’s
intentions in relation to maintaining the John Holland name.
Their response was an unequivocal ‘Of course we want to
keep it.’” - Glenn Palin“My Iplex team enjoyed working with John Holland,
a top tier contracting company whose goals aligned
with our principles of open and frank communication.
Working on such a marquee project and developing
customised product solutions are key strengths of
JH and the Iplex team. We certainly look forward
to collaborating on our next joint project.” - Nicole
Sumich, General Manager, Iplex Pipelines Australia Ltd