Facilities, Contracts and ICT Manager for AAGBI

Background

The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland (AAGBI), a respected national membership organisation representing anaesthetists, appointed Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Facilities, Contracts and ICT Manager.

With approximately 11,000 members and a team of 35 employees, the organisation needed strong operational foundations to support its five-year strategy and its wider role within the medical profession.

The appointment mattered because it combined several business-critical functions within a single position. The successful candidate would be responsible for facilities management, contracts, ICT, procurement and hospitality services, while helping AAGBI progress towards a more digital, efficient and sustainable operating model.

The Challenge

AAGBI needed a strategic and commercially aware professional who could manage a diverse operational remit while contributing to longer-term organisational improvement. The successful candidate would have to balance day-to-day service delivery with initiatives designed to reduce costs, improve efficiency and modernise the organisation's infrastructure.

The key requirements were:

• Facilities management. Overseeing the maintenance and operation of AAGBI's premises and ensuring workplace services supported employees, members and visitors.
• Contract management. Managing supplier and service contracts, maintaining performance standards and ensuring the organisation received strong value for money.
• ICT management. Supporting the organisation's technology requirements and helping deliver its ambition to become increasingly digital.
• Procurement. Taking a commercially focused approach to purchasing and supplier selection, helping control expenditure and improve operational efficiency.
• Hospitality services. Overseeing hospitality-related services and ensuring they reflected the professional standards expected of a national membership organisation.
• Cost management. Identifying opportunities to minimise running costs while maintaining the quality and reliability of essential services.
• Sustainability. Supporting environmental objectives and identifying practical ways to improve the sustainability of workplace operations.
• Strategic development. Keeping facilities, ICT and supplier-management activity aligned with AAGBI's wider five-year strategy.

Roles that bundle facilities, contracts and ICT together are uncommon, and the people who have genuinely run all three are rarer still. Most candidates have depth in one area and a passing familiarity with the others, which is not enough when one person carries the whole remit.

Our Approach

Maxwell Stephens conducted a targeted search for professionals with experience across facilities management, contract management and wider corporate services. Given the unusually broad remit, the search needed candidates who could move comfortably between operational detail and strategic decision-making.

Our assessment focused on professionals with:

• strong facilities management experience
• supplier and contract-management capability
• commercial and procurement awareness
• an understanding of ICT and digital workplace requirements
• proven leadership skills
• experience improving operational efficiency
• a strategic and results-focused approach
• the ability to identify cost-saving opportunities
• an interest in sustainability and continuous improvement

Cultural fit was equally important. AAGBI needed an individual who could work effectively within a relatively compact membership organisation, build strong relationships across the business and introduce improvements in a collaborative and practical way.

The Outcome

Following a detailed search and assessment process, Maxwell Stephens placed a highly qualified Facilities, Contracts and ICT Manager. The successful candidate integrated quickly into AAGBI and strengthened the organisation's operational capability in several ways:

• Improved operational efficiency. Greater oversight and coordination across facilities management, ICT, procurement and hospitality services, creating a more efficient operating structure.
• Stronger contract management. Better management of suppliers and service agreements, supporting consistency, accountability and value for money.
• Support for digital transformation. A contribution to AAGBI's ambition to become a more digitally enabled organisation, with ICT considerations built into wider operational planning.
• Greater commercial focus. A more structured approach to procurement and cost management, supporting the objective of controlling running costs while maintaining service standards.
• Stronger strategic alignment. Facilities, contracts and ICT activity managed with closer reference to the five-year strategy, so that operational decisions supported longer-term priorities.
• Increased focus on sustainability. Greater emphasis on sustainable working practices and the environmental impact of workplace operations.

The placement gave AAGBI a professional able to bring together facilities management, contracts, ICT, procurement and operational strategy within one broad leadership role.

Why This Placement Worked

The appointment shows what is involved in recruiting for positions that extend beyond traditional facilities management and call for a combination of commercial thinking, technology awareness, operational expertise and strategic leadership. The search was framed around the whole remit rather than the facilities element alone, and candidates were assessed on their ability to hold all of it together.

If you are looking for a facilities or corporate services professional capable of managing a broad operational remit, Maxwell Stephens can help. Get in touch with our team to discuss your recruitment requirements.