Mark Fletcher

'Bovis was relatively late getting started in the Middle East but in the past three years we have really managed to bridge the gap in terms of local knowledge, and we have a total of over 150 staff now working in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman,' says chief executive officer for Continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Mark Fletcher who is based in Dubai.

'Development management will help developers maximize the return on their investment from a project, and we are sure this skill will find a role in the region.

'We are very happy to be in association with MRTC of Hong Kong on the Dubai Metro, Phase One, and hope this will be the start of a lot of railway infrastructure work in this region. We presently have over 20 technical staff providing strategic project management services on the Dubai Metro, and this should lead on to Phase Two and projects like the GCC railway and metros in other cities.'

But Bovis is not actually new to the Middle East. The British construction giant built the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Riyadh Olympic stadium in the late 1970s when Sir Frank Lampl first expanded the group abroad, and he remains octogenarian Life President and still takes an active interest.

So perhaps it would be fairer to say that Bovis is now welcome back in the Middle East rather than starting from scratch, and aside from the $3.6 billion Dubai Metro, Phase One, Mr. Fletcher and have team have won an impressive line-up of new projects.

There is the as yet unnamed $12 billion Project A for Limitless, part of the DP World group which controversially bought the former Bovis parent group P&O this year; and two large projects for Nakheel in Dubai: International City Phases Two and Three; and the Dubai Village North, a community containing villas and apartment buildings.

In Abu Dhabi Bovis is working on the new campus for the University of the UAE, a headquarters for a leading Abu Dhabi Bank and another huge project yet to be announced. Meanwhile, in Bahrain the company is providing development management, project and construction management for the $1.2 billion Durrat planned urban community; and in Oman the massive Blue City, two resorts for Sama Dubai and the Oman Botanic Park are keeping 25 staff busy.

Despite its British pedigree dating from 1885 when Charles William Bovis founded the company, Bovis is today a truly global concern and owned by the quoted Australian real estate giant Lend Lease, after a sale by P&O in late 1999. Bovis Lend Lease has 7,500 staff to call upon from its network of offices around the world to provide the best in construction and project management.

'We will only work on projects where we can ensure we can engage key management positions from our own staff, and that means we have to be selective about the projects we take on as we need to retain corporate identity which can be diluted if we hire a high proportion of new people,' explains Mr. Fletcher.

'Clients expect the unique Bovis corporate culture and 70% of our current staff come from Bovis offices from 11 diffferent countries. Our reputation is important to us, even if that means in a market like the Middle East that there is more opportunity than we have resources.'

That said Mr. Fletcher and his team are committed to growing their business in the region, and in the Bovis tradition no project is too large or complicated, and the client and his interests always come first.