With a first degree in Applied Chemistry, a second degree in Mechanical Engineering, a broad range of experience as a scientist and a variety of Property, FM and organisational change related management roles, Alan brings an unusual set of analytical and operational consultancy skills to the partnership. His early career was a scientist involved in the design, development and manufacture of novel environmental management systems; however it was with IBM, where he held many technical and professional management roles, that he was introduced to the concept of Facilities Management and to the power of Business Process Mapping and Re-engineering. This was put to good use on a management integration project that achieved significant operational cost savings and service quality improvements across the two UK manufacturing sites in Hampshire and Scotland.

As part of the outsourcing of their the IBM Manufacturing Sites to Procord in 1994, Alan  took on several operational, consulting and business development roles bringing his client side experience to the supply side of the industry.
In 1998, Alan joined two colleagues from Procord in the new venture Coflex, where he took on the role of Change Management Director. The Change Management group took on a wide range of FM and General Business Management Consultancy projects, working for an impressive range of blue chip corporate and public sector organisations. In the majority of the projects, the team provided an independent consultancy support within the client management teams providing specialised interim management, usually working as members of the client team, helping to manage changes in the new ways of working. Coflex was a very successful company which was acquired by ISS in 2004 as part of the ISS Strategy to move from a cleaning company into a multiservice company.

After the acquisition of Coflex by ISS in 2004, Alan concentrated his personal efforts on the internal workings of ISS, working with the Corporate Management team in Copenhagen to develop and implement the change from a single service (cleaning) company to an Integrated (full FM) Services Company. This involved contributions through the ISS University where Alan owned the Transition and Mobilisation elements of the new ways of working. This involved significant travelling working with ISS Country Management throughout the world.
In 2007, having taken early retirement from ISS was, within a couple of months, attracting interest from some old clients who still needed a totally independent consultancy support. The growth of Alan Newton & Associates, which has been successful in delivery of a range of Business Management projects, prompted Alan to set up ChangeStone Business Consultants LLP with Stuart and Nicky.

Stuart is a Cambridge graduate who came out of BP in 1994 under the outsourcing of their FM services to Procord. Stuart has had a varied career since BP, working on the supply side of the industry with Procord, Johnson Controls and Coflex. He has operated at all levels such as line management of a maintenance engineering services team, consulting and account management with Procord-Johnson Controls and with Coflex he was the Finance Manager during the early set up years and also has an accountancy qualification, a rare mix with engineering graduates. Latterly with Coflex he was the Head of Compliance and IT in the Change Management Group.

A few years back he took a career change again and went client side as the Bursar for Dulwich College in Beijing and then back to the UK in 2008 with a private college in Cambridgeshire. His decision to team up with ChangeStone Business Consulting LLP is great news since he brings a wealth of practical experience with sound technical, financial and IT skills! His most recent assignments are:

• project management of the integration of two businesses operating in similar stream services of a national operating company;
  
• Support to a pan-European outsourcing bid for an IT Component Manufacturer.
  

Nicky’s background is a graduate trainee in Production Management with Courtaulds Textiles, followed by spells with Global Crossing and Fibrenet where she had product development and product management responsibilities in the Data/Telecomms sectors. In 2002-2004 she took an 18 month sabbatical to crew in a Round the World Yacht race. It was after that experience that she joined Coflex initially as a Change Manager specialising in Project Management of complex mobilisation and integration projects then progressing to take on a senior management role within the business after our acquisition by ISS. Nicky has been the Project Manger for many of the integration projects for new business acquisitions.

In 2008, she got married and went of around the world for 9 months to further broaden her outlook on life. Since returning to the UK earlier this year, Nicky has stepped straight back into her Project Manager role, involved with mobilising large outsourced contracts although her real strength more recently has been on a client side project with the NEC looking at how they manage their Sales Processes. As with Stuart, Nicky brings a great set of consulting and project management skills, including excellent business process mapping and reengineering experience with a robust, relationship management skill from ‘shop-floor’ to ‘board room’ that are essential in some of the more sensitive projects that we have managed. Nicky’s most recent assignments are:

• Project Management of the mobilisation and implementation of an outsourced integrated services contract
  
• Support to a multi-services tender for a UK National Organisation