Mace Group

Role: Director

Andy Sharples was appointed as the Utilities Director in April 2008. The remit was to build and drive the growth of Mace within the Utilities sector. Mace is providing a fresh and unique perspective to this industry through the skills and knowledge learnt from major projects and programmes in the UK and around the world. The main focus of Andrew's experience has been successful management through leadership, direction and problem solving. He has gained a strong reputation in the utility sector based upon the delivery and out performance of key business targets for both internal and external clients.

Having trained as a quantity surveyor, Andrew spent his early career working in private practice for building and utility contractors before transferring his skills into the public sector. He worked in a variety of roles at United Utilities, developing strong commercial and project management skills which he then took to Scottish Water Solutions where he had been seconded for the last four years. Whilst there he was actively involved in the delivery of a £1.1 billion capital programme leading the delivery of 3,000 projects affecting five million customers in Scotland.

With a keen ability to take on strategic oversight of issues, he has the proficiency to develop innovative solutions for the issue at hand. Further, he has proven risk understanding and mitigation skills. Andrew's ability to rise to new challenges combined with his adeptness at interacting effectively with all levels of staff enable him to be both a leader and a team player. Andrew strongly believes that for any business to be successful it must drive results from grass roots to executive level and is quoted saying "World class businesses are built around people not process," a notion that fits perfectly with the Mace mentality.