As one of the largest Employee Owned Trusts in the UK, we’re excited to announce the appointment of the experienced property director, Andy Hay, as our new CEO. Forming part of the final stage in establishing a new leadership team to deliver our ambitious growth plans.
Andy Hay, who will formally join us in May 2024, will be tasked with leading Hollis into its next phase of growth, as we target raising our turnover in the next five years to £100m. He brings with him a wealth of expertise and experience in strategic leadership within the property sector, with previous appointments including CBRE, where he held positions on the Global Asset Services and EMEA Operations Boards. Most recently he was Managing Director at Colliers, where he was responsible for delivering the first pan-European property management service line, as well as driving the digitalisation and ESG offering across Europe.
Hollis was founded just over 30 years ago, and we’re currently operating out of the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and Germany. Over the past three decades, we’ve grown organically to become leaders across the office, retail, life sciences, residential, industrial and student accommodation real estate sectors.
Andy Hay will take over from our interim CEO Digby Flower, who since joining the business in September 2023, has been instrumental in setting us on a renewed footing towards growth. This has included implementing our new board structure with regional managing directors, as well as driving the recruitment process to secure a permanent successor. Digby Flower will remain at Hollis to become Chairman, in a move that ensures continuity for our organisation and our clients. He will also be focused on continuing to drive through positive organisational change.
Of the decision to appoint Andy Hay, Digby Flower says: “Andy has a proven track record of delivering significant growth to already successful businesses with an international reach, whilst also leading strategic change within large corporate organisations within real estate and other industries. His strong digital and ESG focus and desire to be innovative fits well with the direction Hollis has been going and what has made Hollis the success it is today. He comes with a reputation for understanding the importance of developing the people within a business, which aligns with the Hollis ethos.”
Of his appointment, Andy Hay says: “Since becoming part of the real estate industry in 2006, I have always been aware of Hollis as a business that was constantly growing and being at the forefront of innovating and pushing the entire industry to evolve. It has always been admired and respected by competitors and clients alike for the way in which it has developed incredibly talented teams and individuals. They are the people with the ‘Hollis Way’ in their DNA and who will help preserve the company’s distinctive culture and ensure our continued commitment to excellence for our clients.”
Alongside the developments at management board level, we’re happy to also announce further evolution to our leadership succession plans with the appointment of four new strategic directors from outside the business. These directors will work alongside the board to drive growth and innovation across key existing and new service areas.
Benjamin Ralph and Deepika Singhal will join as directors in April, to head up our Building Safety & Fire service and lead on Building Physics services in the UK respectively. Alistair Cooper will become director and Head of Dilapidations in June. A new director will also join to establish and lead our new Development Management service from September 2024.
Founder and outgoing Chairman John Woodman will remain close to the business as Founding Partner. Woodman says: “Over the years we have explored many ways of growing and pushing the business forward; my desire has always been to maintain our independence and put our people first. Switching to an employee owned trust two and a half years ago was the first step of putting a succession plan in place that secured this independence. We already have a group of directors who are among the best in the industry at what they do; together with a new CEO and strategic directors who bring with them experience from outside of Hollis, they will be able to grow our business even further.”
