Mr McHoul, in his seven years as group finance director with Scottish and Newcastle (S&N), was integral to the rebuilding of trust in delivery against performance targets.

Most recently he played an important role in the sale of S&N to Heineken and Carlsberg. A chartered accountant who trained with KPMG, much of his earlier experience was in a finance and strategy role with the Foster’s Brewing Group.

Samir Brikho, AMEC Chief Executive said: I am confident that Ian’s dynamism, strong financial discipline and commercial knowledge will be of great value as AMEC continues to deliver on its strategy, becoming a high-value supplier of consultancy, engineering and project management services to the world’s energy, power and process industries.