Aled Bath Joins ODS as Finance Director
In April 2018, Oxford City Council divested itself of ODS to create a wholly-owned social enterprise with over 700 staff transferred to the new organisation.
ODS delivers a wide-range of services to over 150,000 residents, businesses and organisations in the Oxford area including facilities management, waste and recycling, highways and engineering, street cleaning, construction, property and grounds maintenance. The new structure will allow ODS to expand its services to other customers with all profits generated being reinvested back into the community.
With over 20 years experience in engineering, finance, IT, change management and consultancy, Aled Bath has worked at senior and board level roles for a mixture of government, public sector and commercial organisations.
He was executive director for finance and IT at City West Homes, an arms-length management organisation wholly-owned by Westminster Council which provides services for 12,000 social housing tenants in the borough and 9,000 leaseholders.
Prior to this, he was group finance director at The Guinness Partnership, one of England's largest providers of affordable housing with 65,000 homes across 165 local authority areas.
Both of these housing association roles involved Aled Bath helping these businesses become more commercial to capitalise on opportunities in the marketplace - expertise he will bring to ODS.
Most recently, Aled Bath led an IT transformation programme for BrewDog, the hugely successful Scottish craft beer and pub chain, which focused on the global roll-out of SAP.
Commenting on his appointment, Aled Bath, says, "With a fantastic group of people, assets and capabilities, ODS has successfully been winning work over and above delivering on its core council obligations. We believe there are lots of opportunities to do more for other public sector organisations and businesses in the area especially as Oxford is going through a period of regeneration and growth. I'm coming on board to help accelerate and extend ODS' business at what is a hugely exciting time for the city."
According to recent research, Oxford's economy is predicted to expand by over 21.6% by 2027[1]with growth in employment of 8.8 per cent.
Simon Howick, Oxford Direct Services' managing director, says, "Aled Bath brings a wealth of financial and board level leadership experience to ODS which will help challenge and inspire the different divisions to drive costs down, enhance growth and provide even better services to a much wider customer base."
Aled Bath has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
