Interesting CEO interview (podcast+text).

heidrick.com - From CFO to CEO joe lister CEO of unite students

He was the CFO before, which is encouraging from a 'buybacks/debt management vs expansion and hubris' angle. He seems quite grounded and sane. He's been there for over 20 years at different levels of the company. Again, that's also good, someone who has literally committed their whole life to working in a team building up a company, is less likely to wreck the whole thing with hubris/ego. He actually seems sad that becoming CEO has meant becoming more distanced from people he works with.

It was a delight to discover this interview this evening.

---- some extracts ----

"Joe Lister: I think the way we work is much more—it has to be—much more integrated than you'd have in a traditional real estate firm. So, you're not just managing an asset which one person can do and they have full or, you know, a big group of assets. You have to work with our university engagement team, with our sales team, with our operations team, with the estates team, and you don't have line control over those people. So it's a way of influencing, working with, collaborating in a softer way, rather than just the telling, you know, ‘I'm in full control and I can make this happen by enforcing.’ So, that sort of softer element of influencing is critical to being successful at Unite."

"But yes, it's so early in the journey that it's kind of—I struggle to sort of see what it may be and sort of head towards it, but I can see how we can make some small steps year on year, and hopefully we'll learn from each other. So I've just actually been on a study tour to the U.S. So I went over and spoke to three or four student operators over there to see what they're doing, because they are ahead of us, it's a bigger sector and they've got some great ideas of what they're doing. And sharing best practices from some of those guys has been, we've come back really, really excited about stealing with pride from what others are doing, particularly in that space of AI."

"Joe Lister: Yes, I guess this starts from a place that I know that I can't do everything, and I don't want to do everything, and I can't control everything. So, for me to have and to be able to operate effectively, I need the right people around me, and that means that I need people that I can trust. I need people who will talk openly, who will challenge me. I do like challenge. I need people who don't have an ego, who aren't there sort of promoting themselves over the team. "

"So that sort of, being able to be flexible and adaptable and move from one thing to another. And the bit that probably saddens me a little bit is people look at me differently within the organization, you know, that badge is very much there. And even within the senior team, people I've known for a long time, you know, and it's the downside of authority, to me, in the hierarchy of organizations, that there's just a little bit more of a barrier than there was before. So, I've just got used to that, I guess."

TRS