Wates Appoints New Divisional Managing Directors

Wates has appointed two senior level directors to lead its facilities management and southern planned housing maintenance businesses. 

Antony Collett joins as Managing Director (MD) for the facilities management (FM) business and replaces James Gregg, who has moved into the role of MD of the southern planned division, housing maintenance, having been managing both businesses since December 2021.

Antony brings more than 20 years’ experience within the FM and real estate industries, with senior roles at Maintenance Management Ltd, Integral UK and Verisae. His most recent role was Managing Director at Mitie where he was responsible for large scale transformation within its Technical Services business.

James is a Wates veteran, having taken a number of roles in the fit out and refurbishment business, ending as pre-construction and strategy director before moving on to lead the FM business in July 2016. 

In their new roles, both Antony and James will be responsible for delivering each business’ ambitious growth plans by strengthening existing customer relationships and growing their business in current and new markets, including Wates’ drive to help customers achieve their net zero carbon. 

David Morgan, Executive Managing Director, Wates Property Services, said: “In Antony and James, we have two excellent leaders for two critical parts of our business. Our FM business has gone from strength to strength in the last few years under James’ leadership and has had another record-breaking year in 2022. 

“Antony brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our business, and we are looking forward to welcoming him to Wates and see him build on the great foundations we have in place. Since taking on the leadership of our south planned division, James has delivered some amazing results. I look forward to seeing them both take our businesses to new levels that help us achieve our ambitious growth plans.”    

Wates is currently delivering planned and responsive housing maintenance to over 500,000 social housing properties and FM services to over 350 properties across the public and private sectors in England.