AVK names Andrew Chilcott as Vice President of Service

AVK has appointed Andrew Chilcott as Vice President of Service, expanding its service leadership across the UK and Europe.

He will oversee the company's service organisation across three areas of the business: standby generation, the PowerPods modular power platform, and prime power microgrids. His remit includes supporting the existing standby generation service team and building dedicated service functions for the two newer areas.

The appointment comes as AVK increases its focus on aftercare for a broader critical power portfolio serving data centres and AI infrastructure. One of its microgrid projects is already operating at Pure Data Centres Group's DUB01 campus in Dublin, while PowerPods is entering deployment.

Before joining AVK, Chilcott spent 16 years at CBRE Global Workplace Solutions. Most recently, he was Global Operations Director in the company's data centre business, working with managing directors and business leaders across multiple regions and helping establish operations in new territories.

His time at CBRE also included leading the Yondr Group account, which grew into a global portfolio of live campuses across the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, the United States, and Canada, supported by a workforce of about 150 people.

Earlier in his career, he was a Business Unit Director in the UK, where he built a new team and nearly trebled the size of the unit within two years. He entered the sector through a four-year apprenticeship as an electrician in heavy industry in South Wales, before moving into contracting work with Mechwind, where he later became Contract Manager and part owner.

Work linked to the DVLA in Swansea led him to Norland as Technical Manager. Norland was later acquired by CBRE. He first worked with AVK equipment in 2019 through data centre generator contracts in the UK.

Service build-out

At AVK, a central part of Chilcott's role will be to establish the supply chain, leadership structure, and engineering teams for PowerPods and prime power microgrids. Those functions will support the equipment over the long term as deployment increases.

Paul Hood, Chief Operating Officer at AVK, has previously worked with Chilcott.

"Andrew and I worked closely together for several years while he ran the Yondr account at CBRE, so I have seen at first hand how he operates," said Paul Hood, Chief Operating Officer at AVK.

"He understands critical power operations from the customer side of the table, and that is exactly the perspective our service business needs as it scales. He is also a genuine developer of people, which matters enormously when you are recruiting and training the engineers who will look after PowerPods and prime power sites for the next decade. Andrew brings the operational credibility and the ambition to build something significant here."

Chilcott said his previous relationship with AVK as a supplier informed his decision to join the business.

"AVK was a supplier to me for years, so I have followed the growth journey closely and I know the quality of the engineering. What struck me once I got closer was the breadth of what the business is doing now. It is big enough to lead the market and still agile enough that you can make a real impact, which was a large part of the appeal after 16 years in a global corporate," said Andrew Chilcott, Vice President of Service at AVK.

He said he would bring a customer perspective to the role and pointed to the way operators assess service partners and lifetime asset value.

"Coming in with a customer lens is my advantage. I have sat on the other side of the table and I know what operators actually need from a service partner, so I know where AVK is already strong and where we can go further. Value engineering is the pattern I would most like to change across the industry. Cost pressure is real, and I understand why those decisions get made, but the answer is to put the evidence for the investment on the table early and show what it returns over the life of the asset."

Operational focus

His immediate task, he said, is to support the existing generator service team while building the wider organisation around modular power and prime power systems. That will involve recruiting leaders and engineers, as well as establishing the supporting supply chain.

"The immediate priority is supporting a generator service team that already performs well, then building the service organisation around PowerPods and prime power alongside it. That means the supply chain, the leaders, and the engineers who will look after this equipment for the next decade, and developing those people properly is the part of the job I care most about. AVK is entering a period of real growth and I want our service capability to be the reason customers choose to stay with us."