Bringing things together to build a purposeful business

Growing up, I would often watch my father at work. He was a watchmaker, which is a somewhat unusual job. I was fascinated by the idea of how watches work, and the elegance of their multiple parts working together as a whole. Looking back at my career, I can see that’s a common thread to the jobs I’ve had. They’ve often involved taking things apart, optimising them, and then putting them back together again. But instead of watches, I have done that first with jet engines and now with modular homes.

People my age grew up watching the pinnacles of human achievement, around the time of space shuttles and various space programmes. I found this hugely exciting and interesting, and it definitely inspired me as a child. My interest in science and knowing how things work made me a classic maths, physics and chemistry A-level student at school, which in turn led me to study chemistry with materials science at university.

However, after leaving university, I actually left the field of science and joined an accountancy firm. It was a massive learning experience and taught me skills I still use regularly, but I knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. So, when the chance to join Rolls Royce came up, I took it. I started in finance and went on to hold a number of different roles across the business. These roles included managing the engine for the A320, which is one of the 150-seat passenger planes we would typically take to go on holiday, and the Trent 900, the engine which powers the Airbus A380.

I’ve enjoyed all the roles I’ve had throughout my career, but that’s not to say that there haven’t been demanding and challenging moments. I’ve managed businesses going through hard times and I understand the impact this can have on people. If anything, those moments have taught me the most. I’d say to anyone starting out in their career to try and keep learning. I’ve found that taking jobs where you might be a bit out of your comfort zone can always teach you something new.

I joined Legal & General as CEO of its Modular Homes business about three years ago. It felt like the perfect opportunity to use what I’ve learnt and give something back. I’ve loved seeing how passionate Legal & General is about doing the right things for the UK economy, to promote the right kind of growth and level-up the UK. The sense of purpose really drew me to the role and I wanted to be part of making that change happen. At Legal & General Modular Homes, our target market is primarily the affordable homes sector, so we have a major part to play not just in Legal & General’s strategy for inclusive capitalism, but also in making sure that the UK can build to the government’s goal of 300,000 new homes a year. 

When I started in Legal & General Modular Homes, we had 20 employees and 20 contractors. Now, we are a team of 350. We’ve developed a process in which the modules are assembled along a production line in our 550,000sq ft. factory. The first step in building a home is essentially to build a module, and then this becomes progressively more and more complete as various installations take place, going along the 12 stages of the production line. The home is then moved to site, where we put it on foundations, brick it up and put the roof on, as well as doing any landscaping or road development that needs to be done before handing over to customers. It’s a very new and novel sector that is growing in the UK and we are very much at the forefront of this, in terms of both technology and scale of the business. 

Our five-year plan is to achieve production of 3,500 homes a year and it will be absolutely ground-breaking to get to that point. We have bold ambitions to deliver not just that volume, but also to a high quality. We have already said that all of our homes will have an energy performance certificate of ‘A’ or above, which would put them in the top 1% of homes in the UK. We’re hoping we can drive an industry shift in both quality and sustainability, which is another key area of focus for us: we want to grow, but in the right way. 

I have no doubt that when we start delivering at our first large-scale site in Selby, it’ll be my career highlight. I can’t wait to see the results of all the effort we have put in over the past three years. I know I’ll be so proud of the team and all the work that’s gone into the business so far, and excited about where we can take the business from here.