Our guest is Kevin Craven, CEO of ADS, which represents and supports more than 1100 UK businesses operating in the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors. Farnborough International Limited (FIL), which runs the Farnborough International Airshow, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ADS Group Ltd.
Kevin became CEO of ADS in April 2021, having served as a member of the ADS Board for three years, including as ADS Vice-President, Defence. Born in Zimbabwe, Kevin was educated at St George’s College, Salisbury.
After completing National Service, he studied at the University of Witwatersrand for a BSc Electrical Engineering.
In 1991 Kevin, who is British, moved to the UK and ran a large leisure centre before moving into contract catering with Gardner Merchant in 1994. By 1997 he was Divisional Managing Director for Citation South, running a large portfolio of blue‐chip corporates, before heading up Sodexho Travel.
Kevin moved to ARAMARK in 2002 to head up Specialist Markets, supporting mainly public sector areas of Healthcare, Education, Defence, and Criminal Justice. From 2006 he ran Balfour Beatty WorkPlace, the FM arm of the Group.
After significant growth there, Kevin was promoted to CEO of the newly formed Support Services division in January 2011. The division included utilities, integrated facilities management, highways, rail infrastructure and the UK Shared Services operations.
Since 2014 Kevin has been Chief Executive Serco UK & Europe comprising six business units. At the end of 2020 last year Kevin stepped down from that role to become the Group Strategic Partnership Director.
He lives in Surrey, interests are eclectic, but include carpentry, reading, cooking, racquetball, and writing.
Kevin Craven