Government Property Agency

Client Profile
The Government Property Agency was established as an internal property consultancy and
executive arm of the Office of Government Property in order to enable strategic initiatives
and tactical efficiencies in the management of the cross departmental government property
estate. At the time of recruitment the GPA was still in shadow form, so still not officially
confirmed as a government organisation.

Client Requirement
The GPA had a goal to engage with departments and establish a service provision that
gradually led to the delivery of services formally delivered by in house teams. This meant
priority was given to the establishment of a client solutions directorate. The recruitment of the
Client Solutions Director was a key appointment and needed to be one which proved the
credibility and capability of the GPA compared to external consultancies or existing in house
teams. The successful candidate needed to be a senior professional with a high profile track
record, to establish immediate credibility with clients, and one who had led similar functions
in the delivery of client focussed services.

Our Approach & Methodology
Our search focussed on major property consultancies, and large organisations with in house
property functions. We targeted specifically those individuals with experience of building the
reputation of the service function through top class client engagement coupled with expert
delivery management. Our real estate practice lead was instrumental in identifying
organisations and sources of referral. Also key to this search was the ability of individuals to
engage reasonably early in the process with the interim leadership of the GPA. Due to the
commercial nature of the role the successful candidate would also need to be accredited
through the GCF process in order to be appointable.

Outcome
The appointed candidate came from a well known property consultancy where they had
been responsible for overall service and account directorship for a number of high value and
high profile public sector programmes. In post for over 18 months, the individual has made a
significant positive impact and is widely regarded as a top quality hire.