THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS

摘要

If not for a tempting company car, Vistry chief operating officer Graham Prothero could have ended up in Hollywood. "When I left Spicer and Oppenheim, where I trained as an accountant, I got a job with Paramount Pictures," he says. "However, Martin Grant Homes offered me a nicer car. When you're in your 20s, a Ford Orion Ghia as opposed to a Fiesta XR2 makes the difference." And so it was Prothero went to work for a housebuilder, starting a career in the construction industry that would see him rise to the position of chief executive of the country's sixth largest contractor, Galliford Try, in March 2019. His time at the top there was short-lived, however. In May 2019, it emerged Bovis had approached Galliford Try about buying its Linden Homes housebuilding business and Partnerships residential development and contracting operation. Eight months later, the £1.1 bn deal was done and Prothero moved to his role at the newly enlarged Bovis, renamed Vistry, serving under CEO Greg Fitzgerald, the former Galliford Try boss who had hired Prothero to be his CFO in 2013. Fitzgerald had retired from Galliford Try in late 2016 before making a comeback just four months later to lead Bovis.