FOCUS INTERVIEW
Conversations around the future of
facilities management o en focus on
how the sector needs to build a stronger
foundation for the next generation of
FM leaders. The IWFM has developed a
Workplace Leadership solution, which
it has described as part of the IWFM
Academy (see References, note 1)
‘dedicated to producing the leaders who
will develop the workplaces of the future’,
while RICS is o ering qualifications that
provide professional status to aspiring FM
leaders(2).
However, both institutes acknowledge
that it is up to employers to make their own
contributions to learning and development.
RICS’ strategic FM case studies on social
value, published in 2017 (3), refer to the
Future Leaders programme run by FM
provider Servest. Through its partnership
and centre status with the Institute of
Leadership and Management (ILM), the
programme o ers employees the chance
to develop and progress their careers.
Qualifications range from level 3 up to
level 7, encompassing roles from frontline
supervisors (Pioneers) to senior managers
(Alchemists), who can gain a level 7 ILM
36 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020
award and certificate in leadership and
management.
Servest and French facilities services
provider Atalian Group recently joined forces
(4) to create Atalian Servest – one of the
world’s largest facilities services providers,
with a turnover of more than €3 billion
and 125,000-plus employees looking a er
clients in 33 countries. The Future Leaders
programme continues to operate, and with
the company realigned as a global player,
many of those who took part in the earlier
programme are now at its helm.
Matt Chapman joined the company in
2011 as Retail Sales Director, rising to
Divisional Director and then Head of Client
Solutions and Strategy. He moved to
Interserve in 2015 but rejoined
Atalian Servest in September
this year as Chief Marketing
and Development O icer
(UK & Ireland), in charge of
driving consistency across
sales and marketing,
developing the group’s
wider business and brand
strategy, and expanding
into target sectors.
Chapman originally wanted to be a sports
agent, and a er completing a degree in law
worked in a marketing role at BMW followed
by a stint at the Guardian newspaper during
its change from broadsheet to Berliner
and online. He then joined Arsenal football
club, where he was a member of the project
management and premium consultancy
team finalising the premium areas of the
Emirates Stadium.
When the then CEO of Servest, Rob Legge,
now Atalian Servest Group Chief Operating
O icer, told him of his plans to evolve the
cleaning company into an FM provider,
Chapman realised what he enjoyed most
about his work was “developing something
and making positive change, and Servest
felt like something I could get stuck into.”
He moved to multinational support
services and construction company
Interserve in 2015 to get some
experience of a corporate giant.
When, three and a half years into
his time with the company he was
about to join another FM provider,
Daniel Dickson, Chief Executive
of Atalian Servest (UK & Ireland),
approached him. “A few of us on the
Matt Chapman of Atalian Servest tells Sara
Bean why attitudes and priorities in FM need
to change to avoid a race to the bottom
...We also identifi ed
that corporate social
responsibility needed to
be at board level...”