Sustainability & Building Services Appointments for the University of London

About the University of London

The University of London runs an extensive, multi-site estate supporting a complex academic environment. Its estates, property and facilities management teams are responsible for keeping those buildings safe, efficient and compliant, and for carrying the University's commitment to achieving zero operational carbon.

That commitment ties sustainability and building services closely together. Carbon reduction on an occupied university estate depends as much on how engineering systems are maintained, upgraded and run as on policy, and both depend on persuading departments and building users to accept change.

Our work with the University of London

The University of London appointed Maxwell Stephens to recruit two senior leaders for its estate:

• Head of Sustainability, Estates and Property Services
• Head of Building Services, reporting to the Director of Facilities Management

Head of Sustainability

The Head of Sustainability would lead the development and delivery of the University's environmental and sustainability agenda, translating its commitments into practical action across the estate and the wider organisation. Priorities were the Sustainability Strategy, progress towards zero operational carbon, cultural and behavioural change among employees and stakeholders, strategic advice, stakeholder engagement across Estates and Property Services, academic and professional departments and senior leadership, and the governance and accountability needed to deliver the commitments.

Sustainability leadership roles are among the harder senior appointments in the estates market. The postholder carries an organisation-wide objective without owning the budgets or teams that deliver it, and progress depends on persuading departments to accept constraints, usually with a payback measured in years. Candidates from compliance or reporting functions rarely have the influencing record; those who have it often come from consultancy and have never lived with the consequences of their own recommendations.

We worked with key University stakeholders to clarify the responsibilities and leadership qualities required, then searched our facilities, estates and sustainability networks for people with experience of sustainability strategy, carbon reduction, environmental leadership and organisational change who could turn commitments into measurable programmes. Candidates were assessed on expertise, strategic leadership, strategy implementation, carbon reduction, stakeholder management, influence over behaviour and alignment with the University's objectives, and went through multiple interview stages with the stakeholders they would need to influence in post.

Maxwell Stephens placed a Head of Sustainability within Estates and Property Services, giving the University dedicated senior leadership for its zero operational carbon ambition, responsibility for a more structured Sustainability Strategy, and a postholder whose communication and influencing skills made sustainability a more visible consideration in operational and strategic discussions.

Head of Building Services

Reporting to the Director of Facilities Management, the Head of Building Services would provide strategic and technical leadership across the University's estate, with responsibility for engineering maintenance, energy management, sustainability and project services. The brief covered mechanical and electrical systems, multi-site maintenance management, energy reduction, appraisal of new technologies, engineering projects from appraisal through procurement to completion, service contracts and procurement, compliance reporting and M&E advice, significant budgets, and stakeholder management with FM colleagues, academic departments and professional services teams.

Appointments like this sit between two candidate markets. Engineering managers with real M&E depth often have limited procurement or budget exposure; estates managers comfortable with strategy often lack the technical authority to challenge a consultant's design or a contractor's remedial recommendation. On a university estate, engineering work also lands in buildings in constant use, and a badly handled shutdown costs hard-won credibility.

We concentrated the search on senior engineering and building services professionals from large, technically demanding, multi-site estates, and weighted technical depth and strategic thinking equally: the University needed someone who could make informed engineering decisions and explain them clearly to colleagues without a technical background.

The appointed Head of Building Services brought multi-site engineering leadership, maintenance planning, energy and sustainability knowledge including energy markets and emerging technologies, project delivery, procurement, contracts and budget management, technical assurance and specialist M&E advice, and the communication skills to work across competing technical and operational priorities.

The support and assistance provided by Maxwell Stephens recruitment and in particular Annabel Jones was first class. Annabel discussed requirements and ambitions and kept me abreast of options and supported me throughout the whole process. In addition, and unusually, the offer of continued support was made following the receipt of a job offer.
A thoroughly professional and supportive recruitment business, I would highly recommend them to any job hunters

David Temple
Head of Building Services, University of London

Why it worked

Both briefs were defined by the balance each role demanded rather than by a single discipline. The Head of Sustainability was framed as an influencing role with a technical foundation, which changed which candidates were credible and is what the multiple stakeholder interview stages were built to test. The Head of Building Services was assessed equally on engineering authority and on commercial and project judgement, avoiding both the technical manager who cannot carry a procurement negotiation and the programme manager who defers to contractors on the questions that matter most.

If you are recruiting a sustainability, engineering or building services leader for an estates and property function, get in touch with Maxwell Stephens to discuss the brief.