Actium Consultants

Managing Director.

Qualifications: BSc FRICS

Andrew is a senior level management consultant and chartered surveyor who is a leading industry figure in the areas of operational property strategy, outsourcing, cost reduction, performance measurement, new property products and new ways of working.

He has an unusually extensive range of property experience in both public and private sectors with soundly based practical knowledge of both real estate, workplace and facilities management. He has augmented this practical experience with many years of high level strategy work in senior consulting and management positions.

He was the Director of Property Consulting at KPMG for nine years with exposure to other disciplines in areas of change management, business planning, finance and human resources. Whilst at KPMG he was responsible for successfully establishing the KPMG Property Group which became one of the leading strategic advisory businesses in the UK. After KPMG he was appointed as Managing Director of Consulting at Johnson Controls where he led a team of 70 consultants responsible for performance, workplace, change and real estate and 70 project managers who carried out major projects for the main FM business clients of the company. His next appointment was Managing Director of Netspace at Regus where he worked with Mark Dixon, the founder of the company, to develop "Netspace" which was the first flexible medium term property product designed for the office market. After leaving Regus he established Actium Consult which over the last 10 years has become a niche real estate and workplace advisory firm with a leading reputation as an independent property "think tank".

At Actium he deals mainly with strategic work and was also responsible for setting up the annual Actium Consult Total Office Cost Survey which is recognised as the most reliable and comprehensive Total Property Cost Survey in the UK and is now in its 12th edition. He is the past chairman of the Society of Property Researchers Occupiers Group and is a member of The Federation of Corporate Real Estate. Clients he has acted for in the private sector include IBM, EDS, KPMG, Siemens, Land Securities, Bank of America, CBRE, Knight Frank, IPD, Atos Origin, CEPA and Regus. Clients he has acted for in the public sector include OGC, Home Office, Ealing Council, Greenwich Council, Westminster City Council, Newham Council, Southwark Council, Richmond Council, Haringey Council, Portsmouth City Council, Torbay Council, Slough Borough Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Herefordshire Council, Havering Council, Swansea University, Edinburgh University, The London Institute, City University and Brunel University. He is a regular speaker on the conference circuit.

Associate Director

Qualifications: BSc FRICS

Bill is a management consultant with a strong property and systems background and is skilled in the manipulation, modelling and analysis of property data. He has extensive experience of strategy formulation, managing organisational change, M&A project implementation, property systems development and managing property as an operational asset.

Whilst at Drivers Jonas he designed, project managed and implemented the Prudential's first on-line property management and valuation system. Later at Jones Lang as an associate he was responsible for setting up processes and systems for estate management, and updating and improving the property performance analysis program suite. After Jones Lang Bill joined the Grand Metropolitan property team as head of strategic research and established the property linked research and information functions for the group including geo-demographic information systems and risk modelling. Bill joined Actium in 1999 as director of research. Amongst other research engagements he has been responsible for setting up and running the annual Actium Consult Total Office Cost Survey which is recognised as the most reliable and comprehensive Total Property Cost Survey in the UK and is now in its 12th edition.

At Actium Bill is engaged on most of our strategic consultancy projects where his role includes data analysis and interpretation. Clients he has acted for in the private sector include Siemens, Land Securities, Bank of America, CBRE, Knight Frank, IPD, Atos Origin, MWB Business Exchange, CEPA and C2C. Clients he has acted for in the public sector include OGC, Ministry Of Justice, Ealing Council, Greenwich Council, Westminster City Council, Newham Council, Southwark Council, Richmond Council, Haringey Council, Portsmouth City Council, Slough Borough Council, Hertfordshire County Council, Herefordshire Council, Havering Council, Swansea University, City University and Brunel University.

Associate Director

Qualifications: Ph.D.(Cantab)   M.Phil. (Cantab)  , BA (Psychol)   BSc

Alan is a management consultant and psychologist who specialises in human factors and change with extensive experience of change management, identification of IT requirements, management of consultancy projects and development/implementation of training programmes. Typically the introduction of new technology proves highly ineffective with associated user frustration and/or lost revenue.

The focus of much of Alan's consultancy work is on how one can introduce new working practices into organisations so that it supports people in doing their jobs. Alan has considerable expertise in cognitive task analysis and in a more general analysis of the organisational/situational context, so that he can advise organisations on exactly what the new technology must be capable of doing and on how this technology should be introduced into the workplace. Alan has investigated how technology can best support distributed team working and has applied his experience, of analysing how organisational and team factors impact on effective performance, to advise organisations on effective management. An example of this work was carrying out a study for the Crown Prosecution Service on how to enhance effective team-working at the highest levels. Prior to setting up his own consultancy practice in 1990, Alan worked as a Project Manager for EFD (at that time one of the largest UK human factors consultancies) with responsibility for managing five major projects. In parallel with his consultancy work, Alan has lectured in Cognitive Psychology for the Open University for more than 10 years.

He has been the chair of the Open University Psychological Society for 3 years and has organised major psychological conferences. Alan has developed specialist training strategies for new computer systems and assessed automated trainers for IT systems. He has also worked on designing a course for managers on the successful introduction of IT. Alan has used his psychological and IT expertise to contribute to the development of the Actium Consult Workplace Model and was the change management lead consultant on the Ealing Council project.

Alan has considerable expertise in how complex decision-making can best be supported by technology. He has investigated the failure of many attempts to provide technological decision support systems, identified the key contributory factors and produced a set of guidelines for the design and evaluation of new decision support systems. He also has considerable experience in conducting evaluations of IT systems in terms of how easy they are to use and how effectively they support the user in conducting his/her tasks. Alan has conducted various behavioural studies for VISA International in support of their policy for reducing the incidence of cross border fraud and devised a research programme to investigate (and quantify) the secondary cost of fraud - the loss in revenue caused by changes in spending behaviour by card users who have been the victims of card fraud. This has resulted in changes to customer handling procedures (in cases where fraud has occurred) by major UK banks.

Associate Director

Qualifications: BSc MRICS ICIOB

Abdul is a senior property consultant and chartered surveyor who is a leading industry figure in Local Government in London in the areas of regeneration, property development, corporate property strategy, valuation, commercial estate management and public sector procurement.

He has extensive property experience in public and private sector partnerships including asset backed vehicles, physical and social regeneration and community led schemes and working with the third sector. He has practical knowledge of the provision of in-house and outsourced property & design services, facilities management and construction services. He has augmented this practical experience with many years of work in Local Government and Regeneration Agencies.

He was the Head of Property Services and Assistant Director of Development and Special Projects, at the London Borough of Newham, where he worked for twenty five years with exposure to other disciplines in Local Government Services, including the 2012 Olympics area, town centre and major sites regeneration, housing, planning, building control, transport, markets management, environmental services, environmental health, adult and children services, best value reviews, legal, finance and human resources. He led a team of 40 professional staff responsible for property services, performance management, valuation, commercial estate management, markets management, property security and enforcement, property development and corporate asset management. While at Newham he was a member of the Local Government Corporate Property Managers' Association (COPROP), of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV), and of the Association of Chief Estate Officers and Property Managers in Local Government (ACES), having been the Membership Officer for the London Branch.

Whilst at Newham, he was seconded to various Government Regeneration Agencies working within the Borough, including the London Docklands Development Corporation, English Partnerships, Commission for New Towns and the London Development Agency. In both his seconded and Head of Service role, he worked with Board Members and Local Councillors, Chief Executives and Directors, providing property advice, working closely with multi-disciplined teams of planners, estate managers, engineers, architects and external firms, on multi-million pound regeneration and infrastructure schemes. He was responsible for negotiating with Developers on numerous property regeneration schemes and well as successfully establishing project teams to help deliver projects. He has extensive experience in public infrastructure and community projects, working and consulting with the community on politically sensitive projects, and setting up governance arrangements for Property Regeneration Schemes and Corporate Asset Management. He led on the Procurement and Accommodation Strategy, which resulted in acquisition of a new HQ for 2000 staff.

At Actium he deals mainly with strategic property development advice, private and public partnerships, procurement strategies, service reviews, property acquisition and disposal programmes, project and programme management, client management, community and political management. He has worked with London Boroughs, Private Developers, Primary Health Care Trusts, New Deal for Communities, Sure Start, Metropolitan Police, Religious and Community Groups, Charities, Housing Associations, London Development Agency and various Government Departments.