Change is here

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‘Catch them when they’re young.’ Or in the case of Laurie Voyer, new.

Voyer is the fresh blood at Al Habtoor Leighton Group and has promised to take the firm, also one of the biggest construction conglomerates in the Middle East, to new heights. Construction Week editor, Conrad Egbert caught up with him in the region’s first exclusive interview, to learn more about the new force behind Al Habtoor Leighton

When one’s in the presence of ingenuousness, you know it. The smiles are different, the handshake’s firm and most importantly, you’re looked straight in the eye, unabashed, with nothing to hide. And that’s Laurie Voyer for you – an honest man who seems like he’s not afraid to take on the world or answer an impertinent question.

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“I love pressure,” laughs Voyer when asked if he felt a little in awe of the job he’s taken on. “It doesn’t frighten me.”

His reputation for health and safety standards precedes him and it is also one of the many changes he’s here to make.

But all work and no play is certainly not what expatriates in Dubai are known for, so it’s good to know that Voyer is destined to fit in perfectly. Fresh off the boat from Australia, he says his fascination for the Middle East is probably the main reason why he accepted the job.

“I suppose from my point of view I was very happy to continue working in Australia but the Middle East has always fascinated me beyond a work career. I guess what drew me here was the director of Al Habtoor Leighton Group, but also in my own space, I thought it was a part of the world that I’ve never fully understood. And quite honestly, the only way you can understand a place is if you’ve been there.

“I want to be here; I want to work here; I’ve got an opportunity to be here for the next four to five years and it’s not just for the work – I’d like to understand the whole place, the culture, the religion, how things work, so I’m quite excited to be here.”

The tie-up between Al Habtoor and the Leighton Group happened like “magic” he joked. Leighton was looking to expand its presence world wide and similarly, the Habtoor family and shareholders were looking to couple-up with an international contractor. The Leighton group had worked with Al Habtoor group in the 80s, both CEOs met, discussed it and boom! Al Habtoor Leighton Group emerged. Magic.

A positive outlook could possibly be Voyer’s most valuable asset in a market, which is still struggling to cope with the widespread damage the economic downturn has caused. And this is probably why he’s able to take things in his stride.

“It was inevitable,” he says looking unaffected. “But having said that the construction industry worldwide continues to function like a roller coaster – sometimes it seems to go deeper between the troughs and then peaks again at various points, so it’s pretty natural in this industry to see things like this, however, I think Dubai has probably got a long way to go. I mean all the units still being built and the amount of confirmed residential units to come online within the next six months, will continually keep the market constant for the next 5 to 6 years maybe.”

And that’s pretty much the most honest and feasible answer anyone in the industry has ever given. He continues: “Infrastructure has got a long way to catch up, a lot of road works and support structures for all those developments still have to be done, whether it’s power, water or sewer. Transportation still needs to catch up to the building activity that is going on. I think there will be spot opportunities around.”

So has the region seen the end of projects like big residential communities and crazy structures that have defined Dubai in the past? Voyer says yes and no.

“We’re still involved in some early feasibility works on some major opportunities but I don’t think they’ll be building anywhere near like the crazy record that they’ve been attempting to. Instead of taking three years like before, I might take five years now to build and it’s a much steadier, safer and simpler way of doing things. And it makes more sense. It’s considerably more practical as well.”

The Al Habtoor Leighton Group’s work in hand is currently around the US $6 billion (AED22 billion) mark. In addition, it is chasing about $3 billion in Qatar alone. Voyer shines the light.

“There’s a people mover in the education city that we’re looking at. We’re in consortium with Siemens there, to provide a transportation system for Education City. We’re also very active in the bidding for the Doha Port. I’m sure you know, we just won a Kahramaa (Qatar’s general water and electricity corporation) water reservoir project, so we’re looking to grow in that area and that type of activity, which we probably haven’t been traditionally known for in Qatar or even here for that matter. So that’s a part of the Leighton stable, I suppose, together with Habtoor Business, that we see the Habtoor Leighton brand beginning to deliver.

“We see great opportunities in the oil and gas market in Qatar and we’re probably going to struggle a bit, but we’ll make some inroads there in the next four months I think.”