The Australian reported that Moffatt, who was once tipped to head up Telstra, had been tapped on the shoulder to take the chairman’s role for the new venture, which was created in December when the Spanish-controlled Leighton sold off half of its services business to Apollo to create a 50:50 partnership.

The services arm has major contracts with the National Broadband Network and controls the Thiess and Visionstream businesses. It will offer maintenance, design and construction work across the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors.

The new JV already holds $4 billion worth of contracts, including $1.5 billion in NBN work as Thiess is the single largest NBN contractor.

Moffatt served more than 10 years with Telstra, leaving the company in 2009 after he was passed over for the top job for the second time.

More recently he was associated with European budget mobile phone concern Lebara and data security firm Asurion.

Moffatt has no great experience in the services sector, but his ties to the telecommunication industry could prove invaluable if the JV successfully secures NBN contract expansions.