5 minutes with Dave Wheeler

In our ‘5 minutes with series’, we sit down with different members of the Truman team to discuss life at Truman. This week, we’re talking to Managing Director, Dave Wheeler.

Tell us a bit about your role

I’m the managing director, meaning I manage all aspects of the business. That includes everything from negotiating contracts to overseeing delivery. My background in the industry is in quantity surveying so as you’d expect, I’m heavily involved in the commercial side of the business.

What’s been your journey with Truman

I joined Medlock in 2015 before being promoted to commercial director in 2016. At the same time as I accepted the role at Medlock, I was also made commercial director for Truman, a company that grew out of the Medlock brand to offer a design and build service.

I was working across both businesses, continuing to split my time between the established Medlock brand and the fast-growing Truman. Because I was so passionate about design and build, it led to me focussing predominantly on the Truman side of things as time went on.

In 2020, I became the managing director at Truman and stepped down from my role at Medlock, leaving Truman as my sole focus.

What’s special about working at Truman

Because of our size, there’s a real personal feel to the service we provide. Our team members are all motivated to get the best results possible and focus on providing trusted advice that helps our clients propel their projects in the right direction.

Because every Truman colleague is involved in the bigger picture, it generates a tremendous amount of personal investment in our work. This creates an inspiring environment and a dynamic where everyone feels empowered to make a difference.  

What does it mean to be a game-changer

What sets us apart from our competition is our very singular focus on customer service and high-quality design and build. Because we only negotiate and don’t tender, everything we do is geared towards providing the best service to our clients.

We aren’t like the big design and build companies doing hundreds of jobs a year. We’re a small team working on a small number of high-quality projects. We select our clients carefully and tend to do a lot of repeat business.

Because we don’t tender for work, we’re able to dedicate all of our time to working with the clients we want to work with and delivering the best design and build projects for them.

By concentrating on negotiation rather than tendering, it ensures we’re able to give the preconstruction stage the time and resource it deserves. This attention to detail lays the foundations for successful projects for Truman, the supply chain and most importantly, our clients.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

I’m very much a family man. However, when I am not with my wife and children, I play a lot of racket sports and I’m a frequent visitor to my local golf course – where I play, very badly!

Jump racing is another big passion of mine. The Cheltenham festival looms big on my yearly calendar and provides some much needed down time from the day-to-day pace of this wonderful industry!

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That’s our five minutes with Dave up. Be sure to check back soon for another instalment.