Open-access content
10th October 2011
11 October 2011
By David Arminas
Winner: Lionel Prodgers, director of Agents4RM
Many people have a substantial impact on the development of the industry either as clients, consultants, service partners, professional representatives, as well as writers and commentators.
Many people also will have helped shape sector from a number of these positions.
Judges considered the roles and responsibilities held during the person’s FM career and examined the achievements over time. Also considered was evidence of excellence and commitment to the development and reputation of FM.
Lionel Prodgers, born in Gravesend, Kent, left school at 16 to “bypass” university and landed a junior assistant job in commercial property at quantity surveyors, Goddard and Smith.
He went on to become a serial acquirer and merger of businesses. In 1984, he founded Facilities and Property Management. Ten years later he sold it to Chesterton International, becoming MD of their property management division.
He negotiated the acquisition of the FM division of British Gas and ICL’s Workplace Management business to create Chesterton Workplace Management.
Leaving Chesterton, he set up Ark e-management, an FM software solutions business which was acquired by Integrated FM in 2006.
Prodgers is now an independent international consultant working for blue-chip companies. He has had a three-year secondment to Siemens as managing director of Siemens FM. In the Middle East, his clients include the Kuwait state petroleum firm, KPC.
His latest business venture, consultancy Agents4FM, has just rebranded as Agents4RM, to reflect the company’s increasing commitment to ‘responsible management’.
Prodgers was BIFM chairman from 1997 to 1999, chairman of EuroFM from 2000 to 2005 and a board director of Ifma from 2006 until earlier this year.
He recently became a fellow of LEAD International, the global charitable organisation designed to enhance leadership focusing on sustainability knowledge.
In his own words
“I was lucky to start out my career in the commercial real estate business in central London, and that brought me into direct contact with many well known business managers and entrepreneurs,” he says. “That period certainly helped form my ‘can do’ spirit.”
He gives credit to the many clients who, in the 1980s, took the brave step of outsourcing FM. “Together with my co-director, Brian Bickel, who joined me from Xerox, we shaped Facilities & Property Management to deliver what clients wanted.”
One such client was BP and Chris Wood, then responsible for outsourcing BP services. “He was instrumental in demanding innovation and quality of service, as was Lord Young – then chairman of Cable & Wireless – to name but a few. The lesson learned early on was if you listen to the client and deliver on their requirements, you can’t go far wrong.”
FM now is no longer about running a building. He says businesses have social responsibilities which FMs must ensure are met and that takes them outside the walls of a building. Forward-thinking FMs now rub shoulders with town and regional planners as well as transport and land-use planners.
But a huge impact on the sector is being made by hundreds of FMs who give their time and knowledge voluntarily.
“They give unstintingly of their time and talents in the shape of events, education and special interest groups in innumerable associations.”
Prodgers believes he made one of his biggest impacts on the sector during his tenure as BIFM chairman starting in 1997. “We went through a financial crisis of near insolvency and it required some grit and determination, and one or two uncomfortable AGMs to pull back from the brink of insolvency,” he says.
“Then when Ian Fielder took over as chairman and I was part-time general manager we wielded the axe and got the finances into shape. That was a turning point for the BIFM and created a stable platform for its subsequent growth.”
Also at that time, international relations between the main industry bodies “were at an all time low”, he says.
“I’d like to think that my diplomatic nature helped repair relationships across the Atlantic as well as in Europe. No doubt my subsequent appointment as chair of EuroFM for five years starting in 2000 was a result of the goodwill that we created.
“As I increasingly work abroad, it is gratifying to see best practices we have developed being recognised and emulated in the emerging markets.”
By David Arminas
Winner: Lionel Prodgers, director of Agents4RM
Many people have a substantial impact on the development of the industry either as clients, consultants, service partners, professional representatives, as well as writers and commentators.
Many people also will have helped shape sector from a number of these positions.
Judges considered the roles and responsibilities held during the person’s FM career and examined the achievements over time. Also considered was evidence of excellence and commitment to the development and reputation of FM.
Lionel Prodgers, born in Gravesend, Kent, left school at 16 to “bypass” university and landed a junior assistant job in commercial property at quantity surveyors, Goddard and Smith.
He went on to become a serial acquirer and merger of businesses. In 1984, he founded Facilities and Property Management. Ten years later he sold it to Chesterton International, becoming MD of their property management division.
He negotiated the acquisition of the FM division of British Gas and ICL’s Workplace Management business to create Chesterton Workplace Management.
Leaving Chesterton, he set up Ark e-management, an FM software solutions business which was acquired by Integrated FM in 2006.
Prodgers is now an independent international consultant working for blue-chip companies. He has had a three-year secondment to Siemens as managing director of Siemens FM. In the Middle East, his clients include the Kuwait state petroleum firm, KPC.
His latest business venture, consultancy Agents4FM, has just rebranded as Agents4RM, to reflect the company’s increasing commitment to ‘responsible management’.
Prodgers was BIFM chairman from 1997 to 1999, chairman of EuroFM from 2000 to 2005 and a board director of Ifma from 2006 until earlier this year.
He recently became a fellow of LEAD International, the global charitable organisation designed to enhance leadership focusing on sustainability knowledge.
In his own words
“I was lucky to start out my career in the commercial real estate business in central London, and that brought me into direct contact with many well known business managers and entrepreneurs,” he says. “That period certainly helped form my ‘can do’ spirit.”
He gives credit to the many clients who, in the 1980s, took the brave step of outsourcing FM. “Together with my co-director, Brian Bickel, who joined me from Xerox, we shaped Facilities & Property Management to deliver what clients wanted.”
One such client was BP and Chris Wood, then responsible for outsourcing BP services. “He was instrumental in demanding innovation and quality of service, as was Lord Young – then chairman of Cable & Wireless – to name but a few. The lesson learned early on was if you listen to the client and deliver on their requirements, you can’t go far wrong.”
FM now is no longer about running a building. He says businesses have social responsibilities which FMs must ensure are met and that takes them outside the walls of a building. Forward-thinking FMs now rub shoulders with town and regional planners as well as transport and land-use planners.
But a huge impact on the sector is being made by hundreds of FMs who give their time and knowledge voluntarily.
“They give unstintingly of their time and talents in the shape of events, education and special interest groups in innumerable associations.”
Prodgers believes he made one of his biggest impacts on the sector during his tenure as BIFM chairman starting in 1997. “We went through a financial crisis of near insolvency and it required some grit and determination, and one or two uncomfortable AGMs to pull back from the brink of insolvency,” he says.
“Then when Ian Fielder took over as chairman and I was part-time general manager we wielded the axe and got the finances into shape. That was a turning point for the BIFM and created a stable platform for its subsequent growth.”
Also at that time, international relations between the main industry bodies “were at an all time low”, he says.
“I’d like to think that my diplomatic nature helped repair relationships across the Atlantic as well as in Europe. No doubt my subsequent appointment as chair of EuroFM for five years starting in 2000 was a result of the goodwill that we created.
“As I increasingly work abroad, it is gratifying to see best practices we have developed being recognised and emulated in the emerging markets.”