Jack Lemley

Jack K Lemley CBE was the Chairman of the United Kingdom Olympic Delivery Authority, which is responsible for delivering the infrastructure for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, until his sudden resignation on October 18, 2006 [1].

From 1989 to 1993, Lemley was Chief Executive of Transmanche-Link, the consortium of five British and five French companies responsible for constructing and equipping the Channel Tunnel; the largest privately funded construction project in history.

He now runs his own consultancy Lemley and Associates in the United States with high-profile contracts including reviewing the management of the $14bn Massachusetts Turnpike.

Lemley’s tenure as CEO of the Olympic Delivery Authority and subsequent resignation in October 2006 has been surrounded by controversy and recrimination. Originally claiming his resignation was due to pressing commitments in his international construction business, Lemley International, he later asserted to the Idaho Statesman that his departure seemed necessary because political infighting and the unwillingness of government ministers to face up to construction challenges threatened the project and his reputation. “There was a huge amount of local politics,” he stated, “Those are the kind of things that confuse and frustrate the process.” (Idaho Statesman, Oct. 31, 2006) Later he insisted that Culture Minister Tessa Jowell and London Mayor Ken Livingstone ignored warnings that the project budget was spiraling out of control, refused to accept that chemical contamination of Olympic sites, particularly the Olympic Park in the Lea River valley, presented unexpectedly large challenges, hid additional expenses, such as VAT (Value Added Tax) costs, and refused to confront the reality that the Olympics may have to be scaled back keep within costs. Predicting “exponential” cost increases, Lemley maintained that “all they wanted to hear was good news” and that cost estimates for site preparation were, from the beginning, unrealistic: “A blind man could see there was a huge environmental problem. I thought it was highly likely they underestimated [the costs].” (Mail on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2006).[2]

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