Non FM Roles

In the course of my career, I’ve had roles that have encompassed only a sub-set of my facilities skills, and others none at all. Of the latter, in most cases the job titles on my CV are probably sufficient for an educated guess as to what was involved. I’ve had roles in accountancy, retail management and customer service, and for several years ran my own successful motorcycle courier business.

My original career path was in finance, and from my early days as a trainee accountant and periods of self-employment, I’ve developed a sound understanding of finance, from day-to-day book keeping to P&L and Balance Sheet. I have retail experience from running a motorcycle accessories shop at the same time as a motorcycle courier business of my own. My forays into running my own business have given me an appreciation of the commercial aspects and effects of whatever role I’m in.

At Interserve FM, on a fixed-term assignment, I was part of a team mobilising a facilities contract for the Home Office, with all that entails: due diligence; making sure contracts were in place to hit the ground running; resolving TUPE’d staff issues; etc. My own responsibility was for several Embassies and Consulates in Western Europe. The contractual value of these was relatively small, but taking them on was an integral part of winning the lucrative UK business. More details of this role are here. My initial term was extended when there were implementation delays in another part of the estate.

My role as Contractor Controlling Officer for Integral UK was purely Health & Safety, overseeing all contractors at the Manchester Arndale Centre, whether carrying out work for Integral themselves or for one of the many tenants.

In my last two roles my knowledge of fire and security systems (Carillion plc) and mechanical services (Armstrong Fluid Technology) gleaned through FM enabled me to effectively coordinate engineering requirements.