Christopher Cole has over 40 years of experience in the engineering and consulting services fields. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and joined WSP Group PLC as a partner at its inception, becoming Chief Executive. Under his leadership, it was the first engineering consultancy to become a fully-listed public company in 1990, growing organically and acquisitively to a multi-disciplinary global consultancy of more than 9,000 people. Following the historic merger in 2012 with the Corporation, he has chaired the Board of the Corporation. He was non-executive Chairman of Ashtead Group plc until September 2018 and non-executive Chairman of Tracsis plc until September 2023. At the end of 2024, he stepped down as non-executive Chairman of Applus Services SA following its delisting as a public company.