Kevin Craven
CEO. ADS Group
Speaker profile
Kevin Craven 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 (acquired by Sodexo in 1997).
Kevin moved to ARAMARK in 2002 to head up Specialist Markets, supporting mainly public sector areas of Healthcare, Education, Defence, and Criminal Justice. In 2006 he took over Balfour Beatty WorkPlace, the FM arm of the infrastructure Group.
After significant growth there, Kevin was promoted to CEO of the newly‐ formed Support Services division in 20110 The division included utilities – both gas and power transmission, integrated facilities management, highways maintenance, rail infrastructure and the UK Shared Services operations.
In 2014 Kevin was made Chief Executive Serco UK & Europe comprising six business units including Defence, Transport and Heathcare.
Kevin has served as a non-executive on numerous engineering joint ventures including Romec with the Royal Mail, Atomic Weapons establishment, and United Group in Australia.
He lives in Surrey, interests are eclectic, but include carpentry, reading, cooking, racquetball, and writing.
