About John Armitt
Sir John Alexander Armitt (born 2 February 1946) is an English civil engineer, and the final chairman of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission. From 2007 Armitt was chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body which organised the building of the venues, facilities and infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic Games. He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 2015–16, and was president of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers for 2022. He was chairman of the Council of the City and Guilds of London Institute from 2012 to 2021, He was chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council from 2007 until 2012. He was chairman of National Express from January 2013 until December 2022. He was in post when the last fatality of a passenger on a rail service prior to Stonehaven in 2020 - which occurred in 2007 at Grayrigg - which was later proved to be caused by engineering and testing failures by Network Rail. He graduated in civil engineering from the Portsmouth College of Technology in 1966 and took his first job with John Laing. From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive of Costain Group, which he converted from an annual loss of £62 million to a profit of £6.5 million.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.