Dr Trevor Seymour-Jones

Executive Profile  

Trevor Seymour-Jones is recognised internationally as an expert in the management of built assets. He has more than thirty-five years’ experience across Asia Pacific covering Australia, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. His experience covers property and facility management in the corporate, consulting, and government sectors, from both in-house and advisory perspectives.   

For nearly twenty years, Trevor has specialised in advising and assisting all tiers of government to establish policy frameworks and governance and management arrangements for an organisation-wide approach to asset management.   

He appreciates the importance of the management of government land, property and facilities to the provision of public services and efficient functioning of government. He also appreciates the importance of minimising the risk of asset failure, and its financial, service, environmental, political and economic impacts.    

He treats public assets as whole-of-government resources to be managed strategically within organisational planning frameworks that include land, facilities and buildings, people, capital and technology.   

Trevor has provided policy and strategy advice to the Governments of New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia.    

Much of his work is now with Local Government. He has advised over twenty local governments on capacity and capability building for the integration of the strategic management of assets into policy, governance, services and business planning and reporting frameworks (Integrated Planning & Reporting). He advises on the establishment of these frameworks, and in developing standards, strategies, data and information systems, risk assessments, plans and processes, and programmes for improvement.   

He has developed learning and teaching programs for increasing awareness and understanding of this process; structuring asset management as a central and departmental government strategic function; aligning asset planning with service and financial planning; and assessing capability and performance.   

Trevor has a particular interest in promoting strategic asset management as an essential element of professional public administration in Asia Pacific. In 2018/19 he was Specialist Adviser to The World Bank in a project to design a National Asset Register for the Government of the Philippines. He was further retained to advise on a strategy for the Philippine Government to adopt a National Asset Management Policy and Framework.   

Trevor is exploring opportunities with the National  College of Public Administration and Governance at the University of the Philippines, and the Association of Schools of Public Administration in the Philippines, to provide research and advisory services to the Philippine Government, and developing asset management learning programs for inclusion in the Public Administration curricula of Higher Education Institutions.   

Between 1989 and 2001, Trevor was Managing Director of the Asset Management division of FPDSavills (now Savills) for the Asia Pacific Region, where the group had twenty-five million square metres of property under management. Under his stewardship, the company secured ISO 9000 accreditations for its property management operations in Hong Kong, China and Thailand.

Trevor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Land Administration, and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. His PhD was awarded by the University of Sydney in 2017 for his thesis An Assessment of International Leading Practice in the Integrated Management of Public Sector Property Assets, and its Application to the Australian Public Sector.

He speaks regularly at conferences in the Asia Pacific region and is the author of professional papers and articles.

Affiliations

Hunter Research Foundation Centre: Affiliate

University of Newcastle: Conjoint Senior Lecturer, College of Human and Social Futures

Local Government Professionals Australia: Member, International Advisory Panel

Local Government Association New South Wales: Associate Consultant

Asian Association for Public Administration: Member

Philippine Journal of Public Administration: Member, International Advisory Board

University of Technology Sydney: Industry Fellow, Institute for Public Policy and Governance and Centre for Local Government (2017 – 2020)

Committee for Perth: Member, Reform Working Group (2013 - 2015)

CoreNet Global: Vice Chair, Sydney Chapter (2007)