Infrastructure business AECOM has promoted Manav Kumar to chief legal officer, succeeding David Gan who is retiring next year.
Kumar was previously general counsel for corporate and global head of public affairs, a role he has held since 2024. As CLO, Kumar will lead the company’s legal and public affairs function globally. He is due to take up his new role on 3 October.
Dallas-based AECOM is a global infrastructure company providing advisory, architecture, engineering and construction management services to public and private sector organisations. Projects it has worked on include One World Trade Center in New York, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and the Port of Los Angeles Waterfront development.
Troy Rudd, AECOM’s chairman and CEO, said Kumar’s broad leadership experience, business judgement and enterprise perspective will help advance the company’s strategy.
Kumar joined AECOM just under a decade ago as chief of staff in the office of the CEO, before becoming deputy GC in 2020. Prior to his arrival, Kumar spent four years as deputy counsel to then Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and chief Olympics officer for the city’s successful bid to host the 2028 Olympic Games.
Prior to that, he worked in private practice at legacy firm Caldwell Leslie & Proctor (now part of King & Spalding) and Arnold & Porter, having also clerked in the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Gan, meanwhile, is retiring after two decades with the company, having been CLO since 2019. He originally joined as deputy GC in 2006 from Mayer Brown, where he was a corporate and securities attorney. He started his career in private practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Rudd added: “Throughout his more than 20 years at AECOM, David has made important contributions to our company, helping strengthen our legal, governance and compliance capabilities while supporting many of our most significant business initiatives.”
Gan will move to a senior adviser role in October and remain on until the new year.
In other infrastructure-related moves, back in July Dutch engineering and design business Arcadis named Barbara van Koppen as group GC, a role she had held on an interim basis since the start of the year. Before joining Arcadis last year, she was GC at Dutch manufacturing company Kendrion, following a near 30-year career at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
Also in July, UK homebuilder and infrastructure business Balfour Beatty said it had lined up Ed Egerton as chief legal and commercial officer from global engineering, design and project management business AtkinsRéalis.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
