Indigenous Facilities Management company formed through agreement to establish a joint venture between JLL and Pacific Services Group Holdings.
Global real estate services firm JLL has entered a joint venture with Pacific Services Group Holdings to form Evolve Facilities Management, a landmark agreement for Australian Indigenous business. The joint venture has a target of a minimum of 10 percent Indigenous employment, which is five times the industry average.
Evolve Facilities Management will provide integrated facilities management services to both government and private sector clients.
PSGH is one of Australia’s leading Indigenous-owned companies and has been awarded major contracts with the ATO, Defence and the Department of Finance. It was formed in 2011 by cousins Shane Jacobs and Troy Rugless, who are descendants of the Wiradjuri Nation and grew up in Sydney with strong ties to the La Perouse community and are members of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. Their firm employs 58 staff nationally across NSW, QLD, WA, SA, ACT and the Northern Territory.
Over the past two years, PSGH and JLL have worked together with PSGH providing sub-contracted cleaning, security and administration services to a number of JLL clients.
"We saw in PSGH a passion, energy and commitment to customer satisfaction and sustainable outcomes for Indigenous Australians and the joint venture evolved from this," said Chris Hunt, JLL’s Australasian Head of Integrated Facilities Management.
"We believe that by leveraging the Indigenous supply chain, Evolve Facilities Management will more broadly and positively impact Indigenous Australians by helping to create financial independence," said Hunt. "History tells us that Indigenous businesses are 100 times more likely to employ Indigenous people than non-Indigenous businesses."
Mark Coleman, previously Head of Strategy at PSGH, will take up the role of CEO of Evolve Facilities Management. JLL’s Head of Government Business for IFM, Steve Mackintosh will take a position on the Evolve Board. Troy Rugless, founder of PSGH, will also take a board position of Evolve.
"Indigenous business has never had a proper place in corporate Australia," said Coleman. "We believe in the role that well-managed, commercially competitive Indigenous-owned businesses can play in the advancement of Indigenous people in Australia."
On July 1, the Australian government has mandated 0.5 percent of all government external expenditure must be spent with Indigenous businesses, increasing incrementally each year to become 3 percent by 2019/20.
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