On his third day in post, e-Voice talked with our new Interim COO, Steve White, about why he wanted the job, the transformation of Hyde Group under his leadership and that Saints defeat over his beloved Arsenal. There is also the small matter of the world record he created just a month ago.
Q What were your first impressions of the University?
A When I first came to the campus a few weeks ago what struck me was the energy of the place: lots of young people, a sense of excitement. The vibrancy and the energy here is palpable.
Q What appealed to you about working here?
A The vision for the University to change the world for the better – who could not be enthused by that? It’s easy in my line of work to go and work in the city or overseas, which I’ve done before. However the driver here is to make the world a better place and that’s compelling.
Q You have worked in many different sectors. How close is HE to any of them?
A Wherever I go, every organisation and every sector has its nuances. The university and higher education will be no different in that sense. What tends to be the constant is people: how you work with people, how you build a team to deliver what the organisation wants to achieve. If you work with people in the right way and give people what they need to be successful in their jobs, then the organisation’s vision and goals will be achieved.
Q As someone whose career is built on interim roles, how will you quickly get to know the sector?
A By talking to people like you. I don’t profess to have all the answers to the questions and challenges people might have. If I have the opportunity to sit down and talk to lots of people, regardless of where they are and what they do, then that is the best way to get the feel for the place.
I’m a straight forward bloke. My natural style is not to be chained to a desk. Emails are great in certain ways, a necessary evil, but I will get more out of talking to you face to face for 15 minutes. If I can get people to engage with me in that way then we’ll make a lot of progress.
Q What do you regard as your greatest career success?
A I went to the Hyde Group as an interim and ended up staying four and a half years. They were at a very low ebb and were quite vulnerable. The staff there loved the organisation and what it did day to day but they were fed up of being the subject of so much external criticism. It was great to get them from that position to being rated best housing association in the country and to see how people felt about that, how much pride that created.
Q What is your greatest personal success?
A In September I broke a world record. As an above the knee amputee – I was injured in service in the 1980s – I was part of the first all-amputee team to swim the channel. It was filmed on the BBC and it is going to be broadcast at the beginning of November on national television. We did it with Blesma – a national charity that helps people who have lost limbs in service. Prior to that, I was the first above the knee amputee to swim from Alcatraz to the mainland in 2012.
Q What is your ideal Sunday?
Sport, newspapers and a good walk with my wife – my two children have left home now.
I enjoy current affairs but I rarely get a chance to read in the week – I listen to Radio 4 on the way in to work. So I like the analysis in the Sunday papers and I love the different political spin on the same story if you get three or four newspapers; that makes me giggle a bit.
There will always be a bit of sport on a Sunday if I haven’t been training but until recently I’ve been in the water a lot. I’m football mad and I’m a season ticket holder at Arsenal.
Q [e-Voice tentatively asks] Did we beat you recently?
A [SW laughs and jovially responds] Shut up! Don’t talk to me about Southampton stuffing us in the Carling Cup!
Steve invited e-Voice back to talk with him again in three months.