Perth, March 13, 2026, 02:29 AWST
Clough said on Thursday its chief executive, Peter Bennett, had died, and Australian media reported he was 59. The company did not give a cause of death and asked that his family’s privacy be respected. 1
The loss lands at a delicate point for the business. Bennett had stayed at the top through Clough’s reshaping under Webuild, and the group is now Webuild’s Australian platform with more than 3,000 employees and a project pipeline in Australia worth nearly A$18 billion. 2
Clough said interim leadership arrangements would be shared “in due course.” That matters because Bennett was still central to the company’s public leadership after the takeover, reporting to Executive President Marco Assorati under the structure Clough laid out in 2023. 1
Bennett became chief executive and managing director in February 2016, according to Clough’s corporate history. He took over as oil prices were sliding to their lowest level since 2003, a downturn that hit contractors tied to oil and gas spending. 2
He later helped steer Clough through the collapse of an earlier sale and into voluntary administration — an Australian insolvency process — in December 2022, before Webuild agreed to buy the assets in early 2023. Webuild said the deal included more than A$6 billion of backlog, meaning work already won but not yet completed, and safeguarded 1,100 jobs. 3
Clough’s current work includes Snowy 2.0, Waitsia Stage 2 in Western Australia, Darwin Ship Lift, Project Ceres and the Woodman Point upgrade. That helps explain why clients, subcontractors and suppliers will watch the succession process closely. 4
The wider Australian contracting market also includes CIMIC and Monadelphous. CIMIC says it is an engineering-led services, construction and natural resources group, while Monadelphous says it works across resources, energy and infrastructure; Clough says those same sectors sit at the core of its own business. 5
Bennett had also taken a public role on workplace culture. When Clough announced his appointment as chair of CEOs for Gender Equity in 2022, executive officer Tania Cecconi called him a “champion for inclusion and diversity,” while Bennett said diversity was “an investment in the future of our industry.” 6
The immediate risk is not necessarily a stop to work at project sites. But until an interim chief is named, the company’s statement leaves a near-term question over who makes final calls on bids, suppliers and client communications. 1
When Webuild and Clough reset the business after the deal, Bennett said the new chapter gave the company “greater scale and solidity” and would help it keep delivering “complex and iconic projects.” 7
