One of Britain’s leading industrial groups is lining up a move to recruit Sir Andrew Parker, the former head of MI5, to its board.
Sky News has learnt that Babcock International Group is in advanced talks to appoint Sir Andrew as a non-executive director, in the latest stage of a boardroom overhaul.
The recruitment of Sir Andrew, who stepped down from the helm of one of the principal planks of Britain’s security services earlier this year, is understood to be going through a series of approval processes.
Insiders said an announcement could still be some weeks away.
It is not unusual for the heads of Britain’s intelligence services to join the boards of blue-chip companies after their retirement.
Sir John Sawers, who ran MI6 until 2014, is now a director of BP, while Sir Andrew’s predecessor at MI5, Lord Evans, became a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings for several years.
Hiring Sir Andrew would be a coup for the company which maintains the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet and owns the Rosyth naval dockyard in Scotland.
He served as director-general of MI5 for seven years, but had spent three decades with the agency prior to taking over in 2013.
Sir Andrew led MI5’s response to the 2005 terrorist attacks on London’s transport network, and a year later oversaw the teams which disrupted Al-Qaeda’s attempt to attack aeroplanes with bombs hidden in drinks bottles.
In an interview with the Financial Times earlier this year, he warned about the changing nature of geopolitical risks to British interests, saying of China: “It’s not setting out to do [harm to the UK] as an aim… but it’s willing for that to happen for the sake of achieving its larger goals, which are economic.”
If his Babcock appointment is confirmed, Sir Andrew will be the latest member of a board which is being substantially overhauled by Ruth Cairnie, who became chairman last year.
The company’s directors include Sir David Omand, a former director of GCHQ, who is due to step down from its board shortly, having sat on it for 11 years.
Babcock has endured a torrid few years during which it has been forced to write down the value of Avincis, its helicopter division, and been targeted by a mysterious short-seller called Boatman Capital Research.
In July, it named David Lockwood, the former boss of Cobham, as its new chief executive following the retirement of Archie Bethel.
Mr Lockwood has moved quickly to replace other members of Babcock’s top team, appointing his former Cobham colleague David Mellors as its finance chief last week.
Among the company’s most important contracts is a deal to build the Royal Navy’s new Type 31 frigate, which it is on after competing with rival BAE Systems.
At its last trading update on June, Babcock said it had an order book worth £17.3bn and a bid pipeline valued at £17bn.
It employs thousands of skilled engineers in the UK and overseas, providing equipment support, emergency medical services and firefighting capabilities, as well as facilities maintenance through its Cavendish Nuclear division.
Babcock’s shares have almost halved during the last year, which is partly the result of souring sentiment towards the outsourcing sector and concerns about intensifying pressure on MoD spending.
In 2018, Babcock was the target of a series of dossiers published by Boatman, which alleged that the company’s relationship with the MoD – its biggest customer – was “terrible”.
That suggestion was denied by both Babcock, which labelled the claims “false and malicious”, and the MoD.
The company has since been the target of an unsolicited takeover approach from the outsourcer Serco, but the talks did not progress.
Babcock declined to comment on Saturday.