Background
Kindred Group is one of Europe's leading online gaming and sports betting operators, serving millions of customers across regulated markets worldwide through well-known brands including Unibet, 32Red, Maria Casino and Bingo.com. With thousands of employees operating across Europe and beyond, Kindred has built a reputation for innovation, technology and creating exceptional workplace environments that support collaboration, growth and employee wellbeing.
As the organisation continued its rapid international expansion through both organic growth and acquisitions, Kindred appointed Maxwell Stephens on an exclusive basis to recruit a Head of Corporate Real Estate & Facilities Management—a strategically important leadership role with responsibility for its global property portfolio and workplace operations.
The Position
This was a high-profile international leadership appointment responsible for shaping and delivering Kindred Group's global Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management strategy.
The successful candidate would oversee workplace operations for more than 1,400 employees across multiple international locations, with major offices in the UK, Malta, Sweden and Gibraltar, ensuring every workplace supported the organisation's culture, performance and future growth ambitions.
Reporting into senior leadership, the Head of Corporate Real Estate & Facilities Management assumed responsibility for the strategic direction, operational performance and commercial management of the company's global real estate portfolio.
Key responsibilities included:
- Developing and implementing the global Corporate Real Estate and Workplace Strategy.
- Leading all Facilities Management operations across the international office portfolio.
- Managing global property acquisitions, leases and workplace expansion.
- Delivering office relocations, refurbishments and fit-out projects.
- Managing outsourced facilities providers and strategic supplier relationships.
- Developing annual operating and capital expenditure budgets.
- Driving cost efficiencies while maintaining premium workplace standards.
- Leading business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
- Designing workplace layouts and space utilisation strategies.
- Reporting to senior executives on workplace performance, risk and future property requirements.
This role required a leader capable of balancing strategic planning with operational excellence while creating workplace environments that supported collaboration, innovation and continued international growth.
"I am thrilled to have secured my position with Kindred Group. I can't thank the team at Maxwell Stephens enough for their help and support throughout the whole process. They were always a pleasure to deal with, always came back to me when they said they would, followed up, offered advice and support. I could not have asked for more!"
The Candidate
Given the scale and international scope of the appointment, Kindred required an accomplished Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management executive with a proven track record of leading global workplace functions.
The successful candidate demonstrated:
- Over ten years' senior Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management experience.
- Leadership of international workplace and property portfolios.
- Expertise delivering large-scale workplace, relocation and fit-out projects.
- Strong commercial, financial and budget management capability.
- Extensive experience managing business continuity and disaster recovery programmes.
- Exceptional leadership across multi-disciplinary and geographically dispersed teams.
- The ability to develop workplace strategies aligned with long-term business growth.
Candidates were ideally educated to degree level in Corporate Real Estate, Facilities Management, Business or Finance, supported by extensive technical knowledge of building services, workplace compliance and property management.
Beyond technical expertise, Kindred sought a strategic leader with exceptional stakeholder management skills, commercial awareness and the ability to influence senior executives across a fast-moving international organisation. The successful candidate combined long-term strategic thinking with a hands-on leadership style, ensuring Kindred's global workplaces continued to support its people, culture and ambitious growth plans.