THE chairman of Wembley National Stadium has been unveiled as the next chairman of Hampshire shipbuilding and services group VT.

Michael Jeffries, 60, joins the board on Monday, May 16 and takes over from VT's present chairman Martin Jay after his planned retirement in July.

A father of four, who lives in Poole, Mr Jeffries' professional background is as chief executive officer of support services company WS Atkins plc from 1995 to 2001 and chairman from 2001 to 2005.

He is chairman of mobile data company Wyless and will remain at the helm of Wembley National Stadium.

Mr Jeffries is also a non-executive director of Basingstoke based bank note printers De La Rue.

Hedge End based VT, which employs hundreds of Southampton workers at its cutting edge new warship building factory in Portsmouth, made profits of £46.2m on a turnover of £671m last year.

Martin Jay said Mr Jeffries experience in the support services business meant he was the ideal successor.

He said: "Michael's deep experience in building successful support service businesses will be particularly valuable to VT and I am delighted he has agreed to succeed me as chairman."

Paul Lester, VT chief executive, said: "This appointment followed a thorough search and the board and the management team at VT look forward to working with Michael. His background and experience in services and long-term contracting in the public sector both in the UK and internationally will be of significant value to VT."