With a $2.5 billion workbook and ambitions stretching from data centres to NSW expansion, Hickory is betting that leadership depth is the foundation for what comes next.
There are two ways a growing construction business can respond to momentum. It can add work. Or it can add the people who make more work possible.
Hickory has chosen the second.
The Melbourne-based construction and property company has announced five senior appointments across its C-suite and broader leadership structure, a move it says reflects both the scale it has already reached and the scale it is aiming for.
With a secured workbook of $2.5 billion and more than 1,000 people on the payroll, Hickory is not a business in distress. It is a business in expansion mode, pushing into digital infrastructure, the living sector, and a growing footprint in New South Wales.
The appointments span strategy, finance, marketing, people and construction delivery. And the names behind each role carry weight.
The New Appointments
Sally Capp AO steps in as inaugural Chief Strategy Officer, moving from an advisory role on the Hickory Advisory Board into executive responsibility. Her remit covers long-term strategy, government and industry stakeholder relationships, housing affordability, workforce development and sovereign capability. It is a wide brief, and it reflects how Hickory sees strategy right now: not as planning in isolation, but as active positioning across a sector that is shifting fast.
“At a time when affordability pressures are being intensified by global uncertainty, the industry needs smarter, more efficient ways of building.” – Sally Capp AO, Chief Strategy Officer
Michael Curtis takes the CFO role, bringing more than 18 years of senior finance experience across construction, ASX-listed companies, mining and manufacturing. In a business of Hickory’s complexity, that cross-sector depth matters. Growth at scale requires finance leadership that understands how capital moves across very different types of projects and risk profiles.
Persia Gough joins as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer in a newly created role. Her mandate is to drive customer engagement and sharpen how Hickory communicates its vision and capabilities. For a business that has built significant capability in modern methods of construction, getting that story right externally matters as much as what happens on site.
Pete Howell arrives as Chief People Officer with more than 20 years of experience, including time at 7-Eleven and John Holland Group. His focus is on professional growth from within, capability development and creating pathways for the next generation of industry professionals. That combination of large-scale service and major construction exposure is a practical fit for a company managing a 1,000-strong workforce through growth.
Ben Williams rounds out the announcement with his promotion to Construction Director, leading the Victorian construction division after a year in the business and more than 25 years delivering complex, high-profile projects.
Why This Matters for the Industry
Leadership announcements from large construction companies are common enough to scroll past. This one deserves a second look.
The five roles cover every dimension of a business under pressure to grow without losing what got it there. Strategy. Finance. Brand. People. Delivery. That is not coincidental. It reflects a deliberate view that sustainable growth in construction requires investment across the whole machine, not just the revenue-generating parts.
Group CEO Michael Argyrou framed it plainly.
“Each of them brings deep knowledge, a cross-section of experience and fresh perspectives that will continue to strengthen our momentum.” – Michael Argyrou, Group CEO
Advisory Board chair Benni Aroni reinforced the same theme, pointing to Hickory’s people-first values as a non-negotiable anchor through the growth phase. It is the kind of language that can sound hollow when a business is riding a wave. It carries more credibility when a business is also restructuring internally and expanding into new markets simultaneously.
Alongside the appointments, Hickory has restructured its internal departments to strengthen its property development capability alongside its core construction business. That signals an intentional shift toward a more integrated operating model, rather than treating construction and development as separate functions.
The Data Centre Play
Among the sectors Hickory is accelerating into, digital infrastructure stands out.
Data centre construction is one of the most technically demanding and capital-intensive segments of the built environment. Demand is rising sharply, driven by cloud computing expansion, AI infrastructure investment and the increasing digitisation of commercial operations. For a vertically integrated builder with self-performance capabilities, it represents a significant opportunity if the operational model can handle the complexity.
The appointments of a CFO with multi-sector experience and a Chief Strategy Officer with deep government and commercial networks suggest Hickory is thinking carefully about how to position itself in that space, both commercially and from a sovereign capability standpoint.
The NSW Question
Hickory’s expansion into Sydney and broader NSW is the other key strand of this announcement.
The NSW construction market operates differently from Victoria. Regulatory environment, procurement culture, subcontractor networks and client expectations all vary. Breaking through as a Victorian builder in a state with its own established major players requires more than capacity. It requires trust-building, which takes time, and the right people already embedded in the market.
The appointment of Ben Williams as Construction Director, with accountability for the Victorian division while NSW growth is underway, suggests Hickory is keeping its operational base stable at home while making deliberate moves to establish its presence interstate.
What This Means for Builders
For smaller and mid-sized builders watching from the sidelines, the takeaway is not about the specific people involved. It is about the model.
Hickory is demonstrating that sustained growth in construction is not primarily a function of winning more work. It is a function of building the internal infrastructure to handle more work without fracturing under the weight of it.
Leadership depth, clear accountability, genuine people investment and integrated operations are not luxuries reserved for large companies. They are the structural requirements for any building business that wants to grow without the wheels coming off.
The scale is different. The principles are not.
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