The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) recently announced the appointment of its new Managing Director, Dr Sean Phillips who will assume the new position with effect from 1 May 2016.

The Board made this appointment following a rigorous selection process from an outstanding list of candidates.

Dr Phillips is an exceptional civil engineering professional with strong performance monitoring and evaluation experience at both national and municipal levels coupled with operational management expertise within local roads authorities.

He has held the position of Chief Executive Officer at the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent – a government component in the national Department of Cooperative Governance, also as Director–General of the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency, and previously held various positions within the private and public sector, including the public works environment.

Dr Phillips holds a Master of Management Degree (Cum Laude), a Doctorate in Civil Engineering, and a Master of Science all obtained from the University of the Witwatersrand.

An exciting new phase

According to the JRA it is embarking upon a very exciting new phase of the City’s journey in roads infrastructure, and Dr Phillips’ vast experience in the engineering field coupled with strategic leadership and management skills will serve the City and the JRA well in its commitment to providing quality roads that are safe, accessible and liveable for the community.

As the JRA moves forward with a new Managing Director, the Entity would also like to acknowledge the leadership provided by Mpho Kau during his tenure as Acting Managing Director over the past year.

With Kau at the helm, JRA achieved a clean (un-qualified) audit for a second consecutive year, and continued to strengthen the JRA’s turnaround strategy through an engineering-based approach to infrastructure development and maintenance.

The launch of the flagship bridges projects including the M1 bridges rehabilitation project have been significant achievements.

Kau will resume his position as Executive Head of Infrastructure Development and will continue to be an integral and valued member of the executive team.