Agilia has become an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) to support its ambitions to be recognised among the leading infrastructure consultancies in the UK and internationally.

The specialist infrastructure consultancy was established in 2017 by Mike Pugsley and Amar Qureshi, who each have 25 years’ experience working at the heart of major infrastructure projects.

Based in London and Teesside, Agilia has a portfolio of the most significant UK and international infrastructure projects across the water, energy and transport sectors and has more than 50 employees including apprentices.

Its bases in London and Teesside reflect the geographical roots of its founders, with Pugsley hailing from Redcar and Qureshi, from east London.

Mike Pugsley, joint managing director and co-founder of Agilia, said: “Amar and I are both proud of what we have achieved to date, and our change in ownership structure has been prompted by a desire to ensure that we embed a long-term sustainable structure for the business.

“We wanted our organisation to more closely reflect what we aim to do on the projects we are engaged to deliver. This includes creating project and organisational structures for our clients which promote collective commercial and value alignment to serve a wider purpose. Moving to an EOT will support the further development of our people as we continue to nurture future leaders of the infrastructure sector.”

The organisation’s reconstitution as an EOT, which means all its employees have a share in the business, is designed to ensure that there remains strong cultural as well as financial alignment within the team.

Agilia has also appointed a new chair, James Stewart, who succeeds Fred Maroudas. Maroudas remains in the senior team as a senior adviser.

The Agilia Employee Ownership Trust, which now becomes Agilia’s majority shareholder, will be chaired by Anne Tiedemann, who has more than 30 years’ experience in strategic and operational management working in markets including the US, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Amar Qureshi, joint managing director and co-founder, said: “ We are also, of course, delighted to welcome James Stewart as our new chair and Anne Tiedemann as our independent chair of Agilia’s Employee Owned Trust, and look forward to working with them to ensure Agilia remains focused on delivering for our clients in accordance with our collective values.”

EOT specialists RVE Corporate Finance advised Agilia on the creation of the EOT.