Damien Cavanagh

Background

About Damien Cavanagh

Damien has worked in the mining, civil and building construction sectors for more than 30 years. Within his career, he has worked with both national and international companies providing expertise in project management and cost estimation. Damien’s entrepreneurial strengths combined with his financial and management skills have allowed him to execute challenging projects. Prior to working at Canstruct, Recent Key Achievements • Within 12 months of joining Canstruct, Damien developed and started implementing Canstruct’s Strategic Plan (3-5 years) resulting into the successful completion of phase 1 and 2 before Canstruct’s strategic decision shifted. • Damien transitioned a family-based business to a privately corporatised model within 3 years, ensuring the best-in-class governance and risk management protocols were in place. This included leading and establishing an independent board of directors, implementing strategies to shift culture to a value-based culture, maintaining high stakeholder engagement, and implementing systems to improve and streamline financial compliance and statutory governance. • He coached and mentored the management team to executive level, ensuring strategic objectives were met within set period. • Successful government stakeholder engagement – Damien was responsible for leading complex negotiations with all layers of Commonwealth Government resulting in multiple contract extensions. • Strategic oversight of the design, deployment, delivery, and operation of more than AU$2.5b in contractual works for Canstruct from 2017 to 2023, exceeding all financial targets set by the Board. • Executive oversight of the redesign and implementation of cost reporting functions, administration, quality, safety, and environmental management plans - successfully integrating sperate entities into a vertically integrated delivery model. • Successful management and strategic oversight of design, development, approval, and construction of regional and remote accommodation facilities within time and budget in excess of AU$150m.