Arup group chair Jerome Frost will step into a newly created chief executive role from April next year as part of a governance shake up.

The £2.2bn engineering consultancy has announced a new board structure which it says reflects its continued growth and will enable it to “respond more swiftly to market opportunities”.

The executive management board will be led by Frost as chief executive and will be responsible for Arup’s leadership, operations and implementing the strategy.

Left to right: Hilde Tonne, Mahadev Raman and Jerome Frost

Hilde Tonne, former chief executive of Norway’s transmission system operator Statnett SF, will also join as non-executive chair on the new Arup group limited board.

Tonne, who has sat as a non-exec on Arup’s group board since last year, previously served as executive director at Telenor Group and chief innovation officer at Ramboll.

The new board’s role will be to provide oversight of strategy execution, the firm’s performance, compliance, and leadership appointments.

Mahadev Raman, chair of Arup Trustees, said the changes were the “natural next step in evolving our governance to meet the needs of a business of our scale, operating in an increasingly complex world. 

“In Jerome and Hilde we have leaders that embody Arup’s values and culture and have the diversity of skills and experience needed to take Arup forward.”

Further appointments to the new boards will be shared in 2025.