The Managing Director and founding member of one of the UK’s leading consultancies has retired this week, proud of the company he helped create and confident it is in safe hands.
But he warned that there are not enough young people joining the industry and that unless more investment is made in them today, the problems created will come back to haunt the sector 10 years down the line.
“We have an education system where young people are often encouraged to not do a vocational degree, but to do a more general degree. This means there are less people studying planning, architecture and landscape at university which is a problem nationally as planning difficulties become bigger, but also for us as we need more and more good people to help with our expanding portfolio of work.
“As a company we have had to think about how we deal with that, and while apprenticeships have their place, it is graduates that we need. We identified that we needed to have people within our universities who understand who Pegasus are and what we do so that we get to tap into the very best calibre of people coming out of university.
“We can then grow them through our Graduate Training Scheme and ensure that we have the staff that we need into the future – because I think finding professionals skilled enough to do the work is a problem that will continue to haunt the industry over the next 10 years.”
Tony is a Chartered Surveyor and a Chartered Town Planner as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Institute of Directors. He has been a member of the Home Builder’s Federation regional and national planning committee as well as being a member of a small group of developers who conducted discussion on future planning issues directly with the officers of the Department of Environment in London.
He was part of the management team that founded Pegasus Group in 2003, with just 10 equity members and a handful of others. Today the business has more than 350 colleagues based in 15 regional offices across the UK and Ireland.
Tony said: “I am so proud of the fact that despite many challenges, we have continued to expand and remain profitable.
“The Pegasus brand has grown substantially and is recognised by most people in development throughout the country as a trustworthy brand and that is something that is important to me – that we created something people can trust and that the advice we give is honest.”
Five years ago, with Brexit looming, the company forecasted and planned for an economic downturn by diversifying: Pegasus now has expert teams in economics, heritage, transportation, infrastructure and property.
“In the event of an economic downturn following the vote to leave, we had to look beyond our core discipline of planning, although it was important that all of these new areas related back to a hub of what we do, what we are good at and that is planning and development.”
When asked for the stand-out projects in his time at Pegasus Group, Tony flagged up the Motorway Service Area at Gloucester, a project for Westmorland who also own the iconic Tebay MSA.
He said: “I’m always very proud when I drive into Gloucester MSA because it was an excellent design solution in terms of the landscape that we put into addressing the views of this AONB. It was difficult because planning permission had previously been refused so we had to step in and find a solution, which we did without having to go to a planning inquiry. It looks good, was a great project to work on with a wonderful client and I can still drive past and smile every time.”
Tony’s legacy though is to leave a company pulsing with fresh blood to enable it to not just survive but thrive long into the future.
“When we started, we wanted a business that could continue beyond the times when I and others retire and that would go from strength to strength.
“The way we did that was to have a proper succession plan put in place that allowed people to retire, for their shares to be bought back in and for us to bring in lots of new blood. We are in a position now when well over half of the old guard, like me, have retired but we have lots of new and talented people which ensures the succession and future of the company, which I think in itself is something of which I am most proud.
“The other of course is our incredible staff, all of whom I am very proud and who constantly amaze me at how good they are at coming up with innovative solutions to problems.
“If you get good people working for you will succeed and we have been very fortunate at Pegasus that we have had good people. We have attempted as best we can to hold on to them and provide a future for them which is why the succession plan is so important.
“My advice to the new senior team would be to look after the people who work for you as they are so, so important, and continue to build a company based on trust and honesty, because that way you will succeed.”
The new structure of Pegasus Group’s Executive Board will see former Chairman Jim Tarzey become CEO, with Chris May Deputy CEO. Chair of the Executive Board is Gary Lees while Sam Kerby become Chief Finance & Group Services Officer.