For over two decades, Act-Clean has been responsible for some of London’s most iconic hospitality venues, from The Ritz to The Wolseley, preserving their history and lustre, night after night.
At Act-Clean, values are not simply words in a handbook. They are operational commitments, lived out across every site, in environments where timing, safety and consistency are non-negotiable.
Having explored Gillian Thomson’s career in our first interview, working alongside some of our industry’s most extraordinary chefs and operators, Gillian’s career has taken her through some of the most demanding environments where standards aren’t negotiable.
That same mindset shows up in how she leads today.
For COO Gillian Thomson, two values sit at the heart of her leadership: Reliability & Pride, and Integrity & Ethics. They don’t exist as standalone ideas, but as disciplines that shape how the business runs, particularly when things don’t go to plan.
“They’re all interconnected,” she explains. “Showing up ties back to honesty… It’s about clients being able to rely on us and trust us. It’s not just that we turn up, it’s that we turn up and we do what we say we’re going to do.”
Reliability is not just about being there.
In a business like Act-Clean, reliability is time-critical, safety-critical, and ultimately experience-critical.
“If we don’t do what we do well and consistently,” Gillian says, “the client arrives in the morning already on the back foot, and that rolls straight through to the guest experience.”
And when something doesn’t go to plan, the expectation is the same: honesty, ownership, and action. “We’re honest about it, and we work with the client to find the solution.”
That, she believes, is what defines a genuine partnership. “Because when things go wrong, and inevitably they do – you’ve already built the trust to navigate those things.”
Reliability, then, is not just consistency of output. It is consistency of behaviour, turning up with what she describes as “the right attitude and aptitude,” and a shared understanding that Act-Clean is part of the wider team.
Supporting people, not just managing them
Act-Clean operates in high-pressure environments: tight turnarounds, strict health and safety requirements, and spaces where standards cannot slip.
Leadership, in this context, requires clarity, but also care.
“We manage our people with a very firm direction,” Gillian says. “We have to.” But that structure is balanced with a clear principle: “We stand up for our people.”
Support is both practical and emotional. On one hand, it means ensuring teams have the right tools, training and protective equipment and that those standards are upheld in reality, not just documented. “We check fanatically… to make sure that standards are being upheld at every touchpoint, and that means our people are safe.”
But it also means creating an environment where respect is non-negotiable. “If they’re treated poorly by anybody… we go in and stand up for them.”
There is a consistency to how this is applied. “There are firm behaviours and rules in a business like ours, and they need to be applied in the same way to everybody.”
Over time, it is this consistency and a sense of respect coming from above and extending out to the team and clients, that builds a sense of pride.
Behaving with integrity: “It’s not just what I say, it’s whether it actually happens.”
For Gillian, integrity is not something that sits alongside operations, it is embedded within them.
“When anybody joins us, they’re delivered a training and induction plan… built around our values,” she explains. Those values are translated into day-to-day actions. “Every single thing: from chemicals to wet floor signs, is attached to a value and a behaviour.”
The result is clarity for both teams and clients.
“We forensically map the job that we do and get the customers to agree to it so that expectations are clear,” she says. Communication systems reinforce that clarity, allowing feedback to flow in both directions and issues to be addressed early.
Transparency, in this context, and ensuring expectations are aligned is key.
The devil is in the details
Integrity, as she describes it, is closely tied to practicality and is about being solutions-focused, but grounded in detail.
Act-Clean maintains close relationships with its clients, not as a gesture, but as part of delivery. “We love our customers, and we spend a lot of time trying to see them,” she says. “We know what’s going on in our business… who’s been where and what the feedback is.”
That visibility allows the business to respond quickly, adjust where needed, and maintain standards, even in complex, fast-moving environments.
Team within the team
Perhaps the clearest articulation of Gillian’s approach is how she defines Act-Clean’s role.
“We’re not just the people that come in and clean at night time,” she says. “We’re part of the guest experience.”
And that distinction matters because if the work is done well its impact is felt immediately, but the work itself should almost fade into the background.
Act-Clean teams are not external contractors in the traditional sense. They are embedded and accountable to the same outcome. Which is why we invest so heavily in on site managers to smooth out our client relationships. “We’re part of the client’s team… even though we’re not directly employed by them.”
Then, she simply says: “If the King’s going to have a great time at The Ritz, we’re part of that!”.
Why it matters
Whether it’s being responsible for embedding values across the business or taking care of royalty, in hospitality, reliability is not optional and integrity is a lived thing day-to-day. Leadership cannot sit at a distance from the work itself.
Gillian Thomson’s leadership reflects that reality: shaped by hands-on experience, grounded in operational detail, and defined by consistency over time.
Not just in what is promised. But in what is delivered, night after night, day after day, across the venues that define London’s landscape.
