Citex is clearly gearing up for a concerted attack on the facilities management market. The news that ex-Cellnet Head of Property Martin Pickard is to be MD of the Property and Facilities business (see News story) has been followed by an equally high-profile appointment to a key position.

Peter Bowe, formerly of Amey Business Services, has joined Citex Group as Sales Director for Property and Facilities. Bowe, who begins work today, was previously Project Bid Manager for Amey's PFI Division in the UK. Citex will hope that he can repeat the successful outcome of Amey's bid for the MOD Whitehall PFI contract (see News story).

Bowe will be responsible for the co-ordination and integration of the Citex Property & Facilities sales effort throughout the UK and his role is viewed as pivotal to the Group's overall development.

Steve Parkinson, Chief Operating Officer at Citex, said: "Peter's experience of the FM market place, particularly in constructing and winning complex FM deals and his understanding of the operational intricacies involved will be hugely valuable in our drive to build the FM operations and develop new business."

Speaking to i-FM, Parkinson said: "Our experience has been in development and we are now pressing forward on the operational side of the business. Our strategy is to adopt a risk taking position as a way of securing long-term relationships and long-term profit streams."

Citex has worked on the advisory side of PFI projects and Parkinson maintained that PFI is not the primary focus. He said the company had been working hard on private sector opportunities, particularly through negotiated deals built on client relationships. "We are experts in managing risk, so it's just a short step to taking on those risks ourselves through guaranteed pricing and performance contracting."

However, Parkinson said that Citex was not in the position to take on major portfolios and in that scenario would partner a property company.

Certainly Peter Bowe's comments on taking up his new position show he is happy to be judged on his performance: "I am very pleased to be joining Citex at this exciting time and I look forward to translating my vast sales experience within this sector into a variety of new project wins for Citex and building upon the strong relationships already in place."

Before joining Amey, Peter was National FM Business Development Manager for Haden, where he was part of Haden's continued drive into wider support services from their strong engineering base. His early career was spent in the Civil Service and as a part of the estates team at the Benefits Agency he worked alongside the former Ferguson Bucknall Austin group, now part of Citex.

Richard Byatt