Pycroft swaps roles at Mace

Mace has rejigged its senior management team which will see former chief executive Steve Pycroft made group chairman and Mark Holmes swap his role at the firm’s consultancy business to become his deputy.

Pycroft, who owns 14% of the business, joined the firm in 1993 and led a management buy-out of the company eight years later.

He stood down as chief executive at the end of 2012, having overseen Mace’s transformation into a main contractor following its work on the Shard which was developed by Sellar.

He became executive chairman but under the changes that role has disappeared with Pycroft now becoming group chairman.

Pycroft (pictured) will still sit on the 13-strong executive board along with his deputy Holmes.

Holmes, who joined Mace in 1992 and has a 10.5% stake in the firm, previously oversaw part of Mace’s consulting business where he was responsible for its property operations which includes clients such as supermarket giant Sainsbury’s and high street bank Barclays.

But he has now moved to the newly created role with Jason Millett, who split running of the consulting arm with Holmes, now becoming chief executive of the entire division.

Millett’s promotion was announced in September along with chief executive positions for Gareth Lewis at the construction arm, David Grover at the firm’s developments business and Ross Abbate at Mace Macro – the firm’s FM business.

A Mace spokesperson said: “These changes will empower and transfer full accountability to each of [the four business units].

“Each leader and their divisional boards will be responsible for client relationships, service delivery and overall performance.”

Chief executive and the largest shareholder with a 34% stake, Mark Reynolds, has been made group CEO. Reynolds joined in 1996 and was made chief executive in 2013.

A new chief financial officer Richard Bienfait joins at the end of the month. Bienfait, who is higher education developer University Partnerships Programme’s chief executive, replaces former group finance director Dennis Hone who retired at the end of last year.

In 2018, Mace saw turnover jump 19% to £2.35bn but pre-tax profit fell 8% to £32.8m.