Feature
With the foundations more than prepared it takes an inspiring leader to accelerate growth, whilst ensuring the company’s family values and customer service aren’t lost within a expanding behemoth; and having spent time with the absorbing new CEO, Greg Ward, it’s clear to see that PTSG is well-positioned build on its outstanding track record.
What immediately was evident with Greg was a down-to-earth but very passionate and driven individual who strives to make people feel like equals, but yearns for satisfaction in ensuring individuals have the tools and support available to make the best of themselves.
He is a proven international business leader with more than 25 years’ experience driving transformational growth, operational excellence and organisational performance across a wide range of industries – including aviation, security, facilities management, construction, manufacturing and engineering.
As CEO of PTSG, Greg leads one of the UK’s most innovative and ambitious providers of specialist services to the construction and FM sectors, bringing with him a powerful track record of delivering large-impact change, scaling operations and building world-class teams that deliver brilliantly for customers.
“ compromise on safety, quality or service.
Greg Ward, CEO of PTSG Our clients trust us because we never
”
Prior to joining PTSG, Greg held a series of senior leadership roles in complex, high-growth businesses. These include serving as Chairman and CEO of Revive Group, where he led successful turnarounds across multiple sectors; and Managing Director of Transguard Group in the UAE, where he oversaw the company’s expansion, growing the business to become the largest and number one facility management company in the region.
Earlier in his career, Greg was Global Managing Director of Manufacturing at Laing O’Rourke, responsible for international factory operations; Operations Director at BAA Heathrow, where he managed multi-billion-pound programmes and thousands of personnel; and Operations Director at Ford Motor Company. However, with such an impressive resume, his journey began, very modestly, as a mechanical electrical apprentice.
Personal Focus Well
What is a typical day in a life for Greg Ward? I don’t sleep much. I’m usually up at about half five in
the morning. I normally then go to the gym. I’ve been on a big strength and weight loss regime. I’ve lost about 63kg in the last 18 months, so I get up, I go and smash the gym out.
And then I’m normally in the office for about seven o’clock. That’s because I’m normally staying in a hotel because of where the PTSG head office is.
I try to get Friday at home only just to catch up emails, because when I’m out and about, I prefer the face-to-face approach.
The day normally starts with just making sure emails are done. I’m one of these people, it’s a bit sad, but I don’t go to bed with an e-mail that I haven’t dealt with or haven’t read. I don’t know how people manage with all these emails in their inbox. I get a lot of emails, but I don’t know how they manage!
I always have this thought that if anyone’s working for me, I can’t stand the thought that if they’re waiting for me to make a decision and I’ve taken too long to make it, because to me it’s money, it’s cost, it’s customer satisfaction. So I’m a little OCD with things like that.
Then literally my meetings start, I don’t eat during the day
because I’m fasting so on purpose my beloved PA will literally book me back-to-back. Most of my meetings are 30 minutes and then I just drive through.
When I’m travelling, that’s when I’ll do a lot of my calls. So any kind of journey, especially if I’m returning back home from Leeds HQ back to Hampshire where I live, the whole journey can be 3-4 hours and literally meeting after meeting. But it’s great because in one respect what else I’m doing, but also for my colleagues and clients they feel like they’re being spoken to, being looked after, and it’s genuine and it’s giving people the time they deserve.
That’s really what my day-to-day looks like. Then if I’m back at home, I’ve got five kids. So I’ve got my oldest daughter who’s 29, a 28-year-old boy, a 23-year-old boy and my midlife crisis wasn’t a sports car but 2 twin girls at six years old! I always say most people get a tattoo and I got twins! So if I’m back at home nine times out of 10 I’m trying to see the kids in the morning. It’s so important for me.
But again, like I say, it depends. If not and I’m staying in a hotel somewhere, then I’m normally either taking clients out or I’m taking our own staff out. So the week is actually pretty full on.
There’s not many nights I can honestly say that I’m actually twiddling my thumbs in a hotel room because I’m more taking the opportunity to get out. If I’m away from my home, I might as well work and that’s just my mindset. And by the way I can’t stand hotels. I can’t stand staying in hotels, but you end up having to do it. I get to the point on the rare occasion where I have nothing on, I left the office about 8pm and went to M&S for food, just because I couldn’t stand eating in the hotel anymore.
We begin with an intriguing look into the average day of a CEO being relied upon by family, colleagues, customers and partners nationwide to understand the challenges, the opportunities and the approach to leading from the front.
So I’ll purposely fill my day and my day-to-day is full on. I do it on purpose but I want people to have their time with me so and this also helps me learn by providing a good understanding of what’s going on in the business.
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