Leading with EQ: How Gary McGaghey Builds High-Performing Global Finance Teams

Finance leadership has changed markedly over the past two decades. The fundamentals still matter: strong controls, accurate reporting, disciplined cash management and sound commercial judgement remain central to the role of any CFO. Yet in large, international businesses, technical competence alone is rarely enough. The finance function is increasingly expected to guide decision-making, support transformation, challenge assumptions and help the business adapt at pace. To do that well, finance leaders need more than numerical fluency. They need emotional intelligence, cultural awareness and the ability to build trust across complex organisations.

For Gary McGaghey, Group CFO of OCS, this has been a consistent theme throughout a career spent in global finance leadership. He has worked across listed, privately owned and private equity-backed businesses, with experience spanning FMCG, beverages, pharmaceuticals, digital marketing services and facilities management. His roles have taken him across Africa, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the US, giving him a broad perspective on the realities of leading teams through change in differing cultural environments.. That experience has reinforced his belief that finance is most effective when it is close to the business and trusted by the people it supports.

At OCS, this approach is particularly relevant. The business is one of the world’s leading integrated facilities management providers, with turnover in excess of £3bn and services spanning areas such as facilities technical maintenance, cleaning and security. These are services that customers rely on every day, often in complex, high-pressure environments where consistency, responsiveness and trust matter. Under CD&R ownership, OCS has been through a significant period of development. With the initial merger integration following the OCS and Atalian Servest combination successfully completed, the business is now focused on integrating transformational acquisitions while continuing to strengthen its systems, data, processes and operating model.

As Group CFO, McGaghey plays an important role in supporting that work, but he is clear that progress at this scale depends on the strength of the wider OCS team. Transformation in a global business is never the work of one individual, however senior their role. It depends on the leadership team, regional and functional colleagues, finance professionals, operational teams and the people closest to customers every day. McGaghey’s role is to help provide financial discipline, clarity and support, but delivery sits with a much broader group of colleagues working across markets, and functions, in particular, the CIO and the wider IT team.

That distinction matters because OCS’s transformation is not an abstract corporate exercise. For customers, the value of stronger systems and better data is practical: greater consistency and quality of service, clearer accountability and improved responsiveness. In facilities management, transformation only matters if it helps teams deliver more reliably for customers and makes it easier for colleagues on the ground to focus on service.

Transformation is often described in terms of systems, structures and synergies. Those elements are important, but McGaghey’s view is that transformation is ultimately delivered by people. A business can have a clear plan and a compelling commercial rationale, but if colleagues do not understand the direction, or do not trust the process, execution becomes significantly harder. This is where emotional intelligence becomes a practical leadership skill rather than a soft concept. Leaders need to recognise the uncertainty that change can create, communicate with clarity and bring teams with them rather than assuming alignment will happen automatically.

That human dimension is especially important in finance, where the function often has to balance control with support. A strong CFO and finance team must be willing to challenge the business, ask difficult questions and ensure that risks are properly understood. But challenge is far more effective when it comes from a place of trust and shared purpose. Finance teams that are perceived only as a policing function may receive information late or meet resistance when they try to intervene. Finance teams that are seen as credible partners can help issues surface earlier and support better decisions across the organisation.

McGaghey’s leadership style places considerable emphasis on building that kind of relationship. His background includes major finance leadership roles at OCS, Williams Lea Tag and Unilever, as well as extensive experience in M&A, carve-outs, integrations, refinancing and global transformation. Across those settings, he has placed particular importance on talent identification, mentoring and the development of high-performing teams. The aim is not simply to build technical capability, but to create finance professionals who understand the business, exercise judgement and contribute constructively to performance.

In a global organisation, this requires sensitivity to culture as well as commercial discipline. McGaghey has lived and worked in South Africa, London and Geneva, and has worked with teams across several continents. That international exposure has shaped his belief that global leadership cannot be delivered through a one-size-fits-all model. Common standards are necessary, particularly in areas such as reporting, governance and control, but they need to be introduced in a way that recognises local market realities. The best finance leaders create consistency without undermining local ownership.

This balance is central to the development of a scalable global business. OCS operates across multiple markets, each with its own customer expectations, labour dynamics and regulatory environment. The finance function has to support the group with reliable data, clear reporting and disciplined governance, while also remaining connected to the operational realities of the business. In practice, that means finance must provide more than information. It must provide insight: what is driving performance, where risks are emerging, where investment is needed and where opportunities may exist.

The importance of data is becoming even more pronounced as businesses consider the potential of artificial intelligence. McGaghey sees AI as a significant opportunity for OCS and for the facilities management sector more broadly, but he is also clear that it cannot be treated as a shortcut. Businesses can sometimes get ahead of themselves by focusing on AI applications before they have established the foundations required to use them effectively. Strong core systems and processes and a robust, consistent data set are essential. Without them, the value of AI will be limited. With them, AI has the potential to support better decision-making, identify efficiencies and create value well beyond the initial benefits of integration synergies.

This is a practical rather than cautious view of technology. OCS is operating in a sector where productivity, service quality and operational visibility matter deeply. Better systems and better data can help leaders see the business more clearly, respond more quickly and allocate attention where it is most needed. For customers, that can translate into a more consistent service experience, stronger communication and a partner with a clearer view of performance across markets. AI may become an important part of that picture, but its impact will depend on the quality of the underlying platform.

The same disciplined thinking applies to private equity-backed transformation more broadly. PE ownership often brings pace, focus and a clear emphasis on value creation. McGaghey is comfortable operating in that environment, but his view is that sustainable value depends on building the business properly. Short-term improvements have their place, but lasting performance comes from strong teams, effective systems, good governance and a culture of empowerment, trust and accountability. In that sense, the CFO’s role is both protective and enabling: protecting the business through control and risk management, while enabling growth through better insight and better execution.

What distinguishes McGaghey’s approach is the way he connects this commercial discipline with people leadership. He sees emotional intelligence not as an alternative to rigour, but as a condition for delivering it effectively. Finance leaders need to be constructively critical, but also supportive. They need to hold the business to account, but also help colleagues understand what good performance looks like and how to get there. They need to maintain independence of judgement without becoming detached from the teams responsible for delivery.

He is also careful to recognise the role of the people around him. In a large global business, the finance function is only as strong as the team delivering it day to day, and the success of any transformation depends on collaboration across the wider organisation. In all his CFO roles, that has meant working with regional leaders, operational colleagues, functional specialists and customer-facing teams to ensure change is grounded in the realities of the business. The CFO can help set direction and provide structure, but it is the collective capability of the organisation that determines whether change is embedded.

As OCS continues to grow, that combination of discipline and empathy will remain important. The business has scale with robust systems and an effective operating model platform. The work now is to keep strengthening the systems and data set and, most importantly, continue to invest in the human capital. This investment builds the team’s capabilities to leverage metrics and insights that enable the business to continue to grow organically and through M&A, whilst delivering efficiencies to improve margins and cash flows. Finance sits at the centre of that effort, not because it owns every part of the transformation, but because it provides the visibility and challenge needed to keep the organisation aligned.

In a business world increasingly focused on automation, analytics and AI, McGaghey’s perspective is a useful reminder that the human side of leadership is not becoming less important. If anything, it is becoming more so. Technology can improve reporting, accelerate analysis and reveal patterns, but it cannot replace trust, judgement or cultural understanding. High-performing finance teams still depend on people who are capable, aligned and confident enough to challenge constructively.

For Gary McGaghey, that is where the modern CFO can have the greatest impact. The role is no longer confined to stewardship or reporting. It is about helping the business perform, adapt and grow. In large, international organisations, that requires commercial discipline, technical strength and a clear grasp of the numbers. But it also requires emotional intelligence: the ability to lead people through complexity, build trust across cultures and create teams that can deliver through change. For OCS, that collective, people-centred approach is helping support a stronger global business, one focused on customers, colleagues and long-term performance.