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Former Carillion boss lands new Scottish chair role

The ex-boss at Carillion who was in the hotseat at the time of the industry giant’s demise has landed himself a new role at a Scottish engineering firm.

Keith Cochrane who took on the temporary role of chief executive in the final stages of the firm’s existence has been made chair of the Score Group, based in Peterhead.

Cochrane took the reins in July 2017 after the company's half year trading update warned of a provision of £845m being made due to losses on three problematic PPP projects in the UK and from the costs of exiting markets in Canada and the Middle East.

Earlier this year in February, he gave evidence to MPs in the much-anticipated joint inquiry which was launched by two select committees just weeks after the collapse which saw multimillion pound contracts unfinished, £800m of liabilities and a pension deficit estimated to be just short of £1bn.

At the time Cochrane told the committees he was “truly sorry” the firm did not survive and even revealed he had remained hopeful of rescuing the company right until the end. The former chief executive said he wrote to the government less than 48 hours before the firm collapsed to try secure £160m of funding in a bid to save the company, but this was ultimately rejected.

The former boss joins the Scottish firm now having led the Stagecoach Group as chief executive from 2000-02 and Glasgow-based engineering company Weir Group, also as CEO, for seven years.

Commenting on Cochrane’s appointment as non-executive chair of Score, Conrad Ritchie said: “We welcome Keith on board and look forward to his input.”

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