Regain control of Facilities Management before structural strain becomes leadership risk.

Executive FM helps colleges, polytechnics, and universities diagnose the structural conditions driving firefighting, service instability, and leadership risk, then build a practical roadmap to restore control.

For Vice Presidents, Associate Vice Presidents, and Directors facing instability, escalation, and pressure to improve without structural change.

What Executive FM Delivers

Executive FM helps post-secondary institutions understand why Facilities Management is struggling, what must change structurally, and how to move forward with control. The work is designed for leaders who need more than advice. They need a clear diagnosis, practical design decisions, and a credible path to implementation.

Diagnostic Assessment

I assess the institutional and departmental conditions shaping FM performance, including governance, priorities, decision-making, structural constraints, and the sources of reactive load.

Structural Diagnosis

I identify the role confusion, broken handoffs, mandate gaps, weak decision rights, and unmanaged white space preventing the function from stabilizing and improving.

Operating Model Redesign

I develop practical recommendations for governance, role clarity, service delivery design, accountability, and management discipline so the institution can move from instability to control.

I translate the diagnosis into a sequenced roadmap that leadership can act on, with clear priorities, practical steps, and a credible path forward.

How a Diagnostic Engagement Works

Executive FM engagements are typically structured on a fixed-cost basis to provide budget certainty, clear scope, and a defined diagnostic outcome. Where circumstances require a different arrangement, that is discussed upfront.

Step 1: Initial Review

We begin with a series of short discussions to understand the institutional context, the visible pressures, and whether a structured diagnostic is warranted.

Step 2: Evidence Review

I review interviews, organizational structure, budgets, planning processes, service issues, governance arrangements, and other signals of instability, struggle, and constraint.

Step 3: Structural Diagnosis

I identify the patterns driving rework, weak control, reactive load, and stalled improvement. Where needed, surveys and focus groups can deepen the analysis.

Step 4: Future-State Design

I define the governance conditions, role clarity, decision rights, service model, and management disciplines required to restore control.

The work concludes with a sequenced action plan that leadership can use to stabilize, redesign, and move forward with clarity.

Before You Push for Better FM Performance, Ask These Questions

Most Facilities Management problems do not begin as technical failures. They begin as structural conditions that distort priorities, overload the function, and weaken control. These are the questions senior leaders should be asking before expecting better results.

Does Facilities Management have real influence over the decisions that shape its workload?

In many institutions, FM is held accountable for outcomes created elsewhere. When the function sits downstream of key decisions, it absorbs pressure without controlling the causes.

Does the department have the stability and capacity to improve its own systems?

Teams operating under constant reactive pressure rarely have the time, clarity, or management bandwidth to redesign workflows, improve handoffs, or strengthen control.

Are service problems being managed one by one while the underlying conditions remain untouched?

Recurring escalation, rework, and frustration usually point to deeper issues in governance, role clarity, decision rights, and service model design.

What would change if the operating environment became more stable and coherent?

When priorities are clearer and structural tensions are reduced, FM can shift from absorbing strain to building capability, improving service, and supporting institutional objectives more effectively.

Executive FM helps institutions make these conditions visible and define practical steps to address them.

Leadership and Consulting Experience in Complex Institutions.

Executive FM Consulting draws on senior leadership and consulting experience across universities, colleges, polytechnics, healthcare, and municipal government. That experience provides a practical understanding of how governance, decision-making, and operating conditions shape Facilities Management performance inside complex institutions.

Experience includes senior leadership, advisory, and transformation work in institutions where Facilities Management performance is shaped by competing priorities, constrained resources, and complex governance.

Grant Sommerfeld brings 17 years of Chief Facilities Officer experience, including 9 years as a university Associate Vice-President, along with consulting experience focused on Facilities Management in higher education.

MBA
Certified Educational Facilities Professional (CEFP)
Certified Facilities Manager (CFM)
Chartered Facilities Management Surveyor (FRICS)
Certified Management Consultant (CMC)

Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. President of the IFMA Facilities Management Consultants Council.

Start the Conversation

Institutions typically begin by discussing the context they are facing and exploring whether a structured diagnostic would be useful.

These conversations are informal and focused on understanding the institution’s situation, the pressures affecting Facilities Management, and whether the conditions described on this page are present.

If the discussion suggests that a deeper examination would be helpful, Executive FM Consulting can outline how a structured diagnostic would proceed and what the institution could expect from that process.

What Happens Next

If you reach out:

We schedule a short introductory conversation.
We discuss the institutional context and current challenges.
If appropriate, we explore whether a structured diagnostic would be useful.

There is no obligation to proceed beyond that conversation.

Start the Conversation

Contact Grant Sommerfeld

Email: contact@executivefm.ca

Mobile: 1-587-226-1205

For post-secondary leaders facing fiscal pressure and operational instability