Scott commenced his career with BMD as a Site Engineer after graduating from Queensland University of Technology with first class honours. In his first year joining the family business, BMD’s turnover was $50 million, with offices in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Townsville. Over the subsequent two decades Scott worked across every facet of the business, progressing to Project Manager and Regional Manager. Along the way, he has undertaken executive programs at Harvard Business School and completed the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership.
Scott’s involvement as a critical leader of BMD has seen the business become a truly national contractor and launch operations offshore, as well as the bolstering of capabilities beyond transport infrastructure and land development, into non-traditional sectors – primarily ports, airports, rail, defence and resources. In 2009 he was appointed as the Group Executive Director – Operations and in 2020 he succeeded his father as CEO.
With a rich experience in delivery, Scott has a strong foundation of industry knowledge which has furthered his belief that being a people-centric business is key to long-term sustainability and success. Scott is one of the most passionate advocates in the industry for the adoption of new technology to enhance safety performance, increase site productivity, and manage the challenges of complexity in major projects often in extremely remote locations. He has been at the forefront of BMD’s DigiLead strategy which has invested in a combination of technologies from 3D/4D rehearsals, electronic goods receipting, electronic workflows and devices for BMD’s workforce, and the use of machine learning to assist project outcome predictability.
Instilling the family culture BMD is renowned for, Scott spearheads the business through a stage of significant growth with year-on-year record turnover and an unprecedented pipeline of secured work. Under Scott’s direction, BMD has grown to become Australia’s largest privately-owned civil contractor. Scott puts his years of engineering and management experience and hard work towards taking the business to the next level, with a predicted turnover of $2 billion for the current financial year and an expansion of operations into South East Asia and the United Kingdom.
Consistent with the BMD values that have been at the centre of the company’s 43 year success, Scott has encouraged an investment in a number of societal and philanthropic interests ranging from sports affiliations, the PowerArts production and investment organisation, as well as work with disadvantaged communities across Australia. For the last two years BMD has invested over $1 million annually in initiatives which support the communities across Australia.
Scott has been an increasingly passionate advocate for industry sustainability, local participation, training and diversity through his active involvement in the Australian infrastructure sector, and through his commitment to supporting the development of local businesses to self-perform their offering. He is on the board of the Australian Owned Contractors and Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, and is regularly asked to comment on government procurement policy and commercial models which enhance collaboration, productivity and benefit the long-term sustainability of the industry.
From visiting job sites as a young boy with his father to running Australia’s leading civil contractor, Scott has come a long way and was featured in the CEO Magazine.
