i-FM: The online resource for facilities professionals

 Don started his career as a trainee accountant within several different companies, qualifying in the mid 1970s. Moving on, he joined scaffolding company SGB, where he started as group accountant. This led to roles in Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia and the Far East, where he was resident in Hong Kong for three years and also spent some time working in Australia.

SGB was acquired by J. Mowlem & Co. in 1986, and Don was heavily involved with the merger of the two companies. He remained with Mowlem and became commercial director and company secretary for Mowlem’s London Airport Development in London’s Docklands. 

Don then moved on to Mowlem’s facilities management group (later Aqumen), where he became managing director as it developed into the emerging FM market. Along the way he found the time to squeeze in his MBA studies and qualification from Manchester Business School.

After 18 years with the Mowlem/SGB Group he left in 1997 to run the Sulzer Infra Facilities Management part of the Sulzer Corporation. He was based in Zurich and travelled throughout Europe during this period. Don was then appointed managing director of Johnson Controls IFM.

In 2002, he left Johnson Controls and joined Carillion plc as Managing Director of Carillion Services. After spending just over a year shaping and re-organising the company, he took on his present role as Managing Director of Carillion Business Services in January 2004.