Lamprell appoints new chief - FT.com Lamprell has appointed an external candidate as its new chief executive, in an effort to regain boardroom stability following a senior management clear-out at the crisis-hit specialist engineering group. The Dubai-based contractor, which specialises in constructing oil and gas rigs and wind farm installation vessels, on Monday named James Moffat - an engineer with more than 35 years of experience in the sector - as its new chief. Mr Moffat joins Lamprell from KBR Group, the Houston-based engineering, construction and services company, where he served in a variety of senior management roles. Mr Moffat's most recent role has been the executive director responsible for the Gorgon liquified natural gas development, Australia's largest single-resource natural gas project. The appointment of a new chief executive is likely to bring a greater degree of stability to the struggling engineering group, which slipped out of the FTSE 250 index after a spate of profit warnings this year. The group's shares, which were trading above 360p in May, have touched as low as 70p after higher costs and delays to contracts prompted Lamprell to issue four profit warnings and make sweeping boardroom changes. In the latest profit warning, Lamprell last month cautioned that cost overruns and late delivery penalties on an order from Norwegian shipping group Fred Olsen would drag it to a $105m full-year loss. Mr Moffat, who will join Lamprell on March 1, will replace interim chief executive Peter Whitbread, who in turn stepped in after the October departure of long-time chief Nigel McCue from the job. Other high-profile departures in October included Jon Cooper as chief financial officer and chief operating officer Chris Hand. Lamprell is yet to appoint full-time successors for both those roles. John Kennedy, recently installed as chairman, said: "I am delighted that we have someone of Mr Moffat's expertise and calibre joining Lamprell. He is a vastly experienced leader with a proven record of accomplishment in the engineering and construction sector and specifically brings a deep understanding of managing world-class offshore engineering, fabrication and construction projects. Lamprell shares fell 0.3 per cent to 88p in early trading.