Linesight’s insider CEO bets on sustaining double-digit data-centre growth
By promoting John Butler, a 25-year company veteran, to chief executive, global construction consultancy Linesight claims it can sustain double-digit growth in the data-centre, life-sciences and high-tech work that sets its pace. The company says its revenue has risen year-on-year by between 15 per cent and 24 per cent since 2021 and it is forecasting continued double-digit growth over the next three years. However, the company’s forecast appears to rest on clients’ capital spending more than on who runs the firm.
The expansion has been rapid. Under Paul Boylan, who leads its parent group, Linesight grew from 20 offices and 700 people in 2021 to 44 offices across 30 countries and more than 2,500 people. It sells cost, project controls, programme and project management services across data centres, life sciences, high-tech industrial and commercial sectors. Linesight has not said how its revenue divides between the sectors, which leaves the forecast hard to test.
Butler takes over on 1 January 2027, and his case rests on Asia. Over the past fifteen years he has built Linesight’s APAC and Middle East business from a small team to over 600 people across 10 offices and eight markets. Linesight says the region supports its largest global clients, including four of the top 10 technology companies in the Fortune Global 500, and has delivered more than 200 data centre projects across 15 countries. This is a credible template for the growth Linesight wants elsewhere.
Scott Halyday will succeed Butler as managing director for APAC and the GCC on the same date and join Linesight’s global executive team. Based in Singapore, he joined the firm in 2018 and has more than 20 years’ experience leading complex programmes and client relationships across APAC and international markets. Promoting from within at both levels keeps client relationships stable when they are most exposed to change. Asian clients can expect continuity of contacts, and hiring is more likely to follow project wins than any change of strategy.
Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate services firm, reports that construction costs across Asia Pacific rose by an average of 10 per cent year-on-year in 2025 as demand intensified and supply chains remained under pressure. Where consultancy fees follow project value, part of Linesight’s growth may reflect higher prices rather than more projects. If cost growth eases, volume will have to carry the forecast. Linesight has not split the two.
Linesight’s forecast is not the group’s. IPS-Integrated Project Services is part of the Berkshire Hathaway group of companies and comprises IPS, Linesight and Springtide. It has more than 4,500 people, operates across 40 countries and generates approximately $2 billion in net revenue. Boylan stays as group chief executive and, the company says, will remain closely involved with Linesight and its clients. Springtide, led by Michael Riordan, specialises in PMC and EPCM services for data centre and advanced technology environments. Group headcount and revenue therefore say little about Linesight alone, and Springtide works in overlapping sectors. For a client, the question is whether the two brands are offered together or compete for the same scope.
Butler has said he wants to extend Linesight’s reach ‘in the markets where our clients are investing and growing’. That ties the plan to client spending, so the signals are practical: whether Linesight discloses revenue by sector, whether the Asia-Pacific team keeps growing beyond 600 people, and whether it keeps winning data-centre work at the pace of the 200 projects already delivered.