Perfect Circle People | Jess Adams
Here is the latest article in the Perfect Circle's 'People Profile' series, and we are delighted to introduce Jess Adams, Gleeds' Senior Social Impact Manager.
Career History
'My career begun in the charity sector where I worked in both the UK and Vietnam in grant writing and charity/corporate partnerships, working closely with local businesses to deliver their social value objectives by creating new programmes for target communities. I brought this knowledge into the construction industry and have worked in social value for the past four years at Gleeds, a property and construction consultancy.
Here I created, embedded and continue to drive the social value function as well as the Gleeds Foundation, which supports young people to make positive changes in their lives.
My main priorities have involved enhancing the culture of Gleeds to understand and embrace social value, with the purpose of delivering authentic, long lasting social impact through the delivery of our projects and programmes.
We currently deliver social value across major UK programmes such as the Department for Education, Government Property Agency and HS2.
Career Highlight
'Non project related: A career highlight for me was working with our Equity Partners to launch our Gleeds Foundation, supporting young people to make positive changes in their lives. Since launching in 2023, we have worked with some incredible charities helping them to deliver projects that help young people to find their confidence, employment, education etc.
Project related: Working with a major energy client in the UK to help them create and embed a social value strategy across procurement and project delivery. The client is working on a nuclear energy programme that has the potential to unlock years of employment and business opportunities for the local community. It was really exciting to work with them to map how they could use procurement and delivery to do just that'.
What does a typical day look like?
'There really is no typical day in social value as every commission, client, charity requires something different but generally it will consist of supporting bids, working with Project Leads and clients to deliver social value commitments, account managing our charity partnerships, meeting with our Senior Leaders to continuously improve our social value approach and working closely with our Social Value Champions to deliver social value locally'.
What do you like most about your role?
'I really like that I get to engage with a diverse range of people from our internal Senior Leadership Team, project teams, clients, communities, charities and small businesses and that no day is the same'.
What is your biggest achievement to date?
'Setting up our Social Value Champions network at Gleeds, a network of 45 like-minded individuals across the UK who partner with local charities and educational providers to support our offices in delivering social value on their projects and programmes.
This is probably my favourite part of my job!.'
