Leadership for Facilities Management functions under change.
Some FM appointments are made into a steady state. Others are made into a function that is being moved, merged, outsourced, brought back in house or rebuilt. These are different searches. The person who runs a stable operation well is not always the person who can hold service together while the ground is moving.
Maxwell Stephens recruits the leaders, project specialists and interim managers who carry Facilities Management through change: mobilisation, transition, relocation, restructure, and long-term contract environments such as PFI.
Discuss a transformation appointment
Where we are typically involved
- Mobilisation of new contracts, new sites and new operations, from project stage to live service
- Outsourcing, insourcing and supplier transitions, including handover between providers
- Headquarters relocations, fit-outs and moves between buildings
- Restructures, mergers and changes of ownership, where service continuity matters most
- Rebuilding an FM function that is no longer fit for what the organisation needs
- PFI and PPP contract management, and lifecycle-heavy estates
- Capital and estates programmes in universities, the public sector and corporate estates
Why these appointments go wrong
Change exposes judgement. In a stable function, gaps in ownership, authority or capability can sit unnoticed for years. During a mobilisation or a transition they surface quickly, usually as a missed handover, a compliance gap or a stakeholder who no longer trusts FM to deliver.
The most common mistake is hiring for the steady state expected at the end of the programme rather than for the pressure in the middle of it. The second is appointing someone with the right project experience but without the authority to make decisions when the plan meets reality.
What we test for
- Decisions taken under pressure with incomplete information, and the reasoning behind them
- Ownership of a transition from start to live operation, not just a part in one
- Control of service partners: mobilising, managing and, where needed, exiting them
- Stakeholder management across senior leadership, occupiers, landlords, project teams and frontline staff
- Compliance held steady while the operation changes around it
- The judgement to tell a client when a timeline or a structure will not hold
How a transformation search runs
- We define what the change requires: the programme, the risks it carries and the decisions the role must own. Where the structure itself is uncertain, we may recommend the FM Talent Scan before a search begins.
- We agree the right resourcing model: permanent, interim or both. Many programmes need interim leadership to stabilise the function before a permanent appointment is made.
- We search the market directly and confidentially, across in-house teams, service providers and consultancies.
- We assess every candidate on judgement and on evidence of delivery through change, not on experience alone. How we assess senior FM leaders.
- We support the appointment through offer, resignation, start and the first months of the programme.
Transformation and mobilisation appointments we have made
- Estates Manager for the TUC, to run the existing estate while leading the disposal of its London headquarters and the move to a new workplace
- Facilities Manager for EMI, to protect service continuity through restructuring and a change of ownership
- Relocation, maintenance and health and safety specialists for Glencore, for the move to its new London headquarters
- Interim Facilities Project Manager for SailGP, taking its new London headquarters from project stage to live operation
- Site and Facilities Manager for Kisharon School, leading the handover of a new purpose-built campus
- Facilities leader for Holman Fenwick Willan, to review, restructure and rebuild the FM function
- PFI Manager for King's College London, overseeing two of the university's PFI buildings
- FM Consultants for Gardiner & Theobald, supporting clients on procurement, lifecycle costing and operational transformation
- Director of Major Projects for UCL, leading a portfolio of capital projects within its estates programme
- Managing Director for Cofely GDF Suez, a board-level appointment leading its UK technical services and FM business
Related pages
- Facilities Management executive search
- FM Talent Scan and the free five-minute check
- Hire, develop or interim planner
- Vacancy exposure calculator
- Estates Management recruitment
Talk to Maxwell Stephens
If you are planning a mobilisation, relocation, restructure or transition and need the leadership to carry it, talk to us early, before the programme timetable sets the brief. Call 0207 118 4848 or contact us.