Sean McHugh

Mr McHugh brings more than 24 years of experience in infrastructure delivery across the rail, energy and renewables sectors.

His career began with Network Rail, where he spent over a decade in civil engineering roles, before moving to SSE Renewables, managing operational planning and maintenance for onshore wind farms across Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

He has since held a variety of senior project management and engineering positions and was most recently principal engineering project manager at Babcock International Group. 

Sean will be based in Glasgow and will work closely with the Birmingham office. He will oversee operational delivery across the Burns & McDonnell UK T&D portfolio, supporting major clients including National Grid and Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks Transmission.

His responsibilities span project and operational management, client engagement and the development of consistent delivery approaches across regions. To achieve this, McHugh will work closely with project managers and site teams to see through strong operational performance across T&D. 

Sean McHugh said: “I’m delighted to be joining Burns & McDonnell at a time of significant growth for the UK energy sector. The scale of investment in transmission and distribution presents a real opportunity to deliver projects more consistently, efficiently and collaboratively. 

“My focus will be on supporting our project teams, strengthening operational performance and creating greater continuity in how we deliver for clients across the UK. Having worked across multiple sectors and on both the client and contractor side, I’m excited to bring a fresh perspective while building on the strong foundations of Burns & McDonnell.” 

Chris O’Donnelly, UK construction director at Burns & McDonnell, added: “Sean brings a rare combination of engineering, project management and operational leadership experience. His ability to bridge technical delivery with commercial and client expectations will be invaluable as we continue to grow our UK T&D business and support the delivery of critical national infrastructure.” 

Shawn Briggs, managing director, EPC Projects at Burns & McDonnell, commented: “Operational excellence is critical to delivering safe, high quality energy infrastructure at scale. Sean’s breadth of experience and hands on leadership style will strengthen our project delivery capability and help provide consistent outcomes for our clients as our UK portfolio continues to expand.”