A 30-year journey from nightshifts to the boardroom now shapes a national growth agenda built on people, precision and a sharper edge in technology.
SKG Services has named Prabin Shrestha as Group CEO, marking a decisive handover inside one of Australia’s long-standing, privately owned providers across cleaning, security and maintenance. The appointment lands with immediate effect and signals a forward push into expansion, acquisitions and broader tendering activity, as outgoing CEO Niko Mavro steps into the role of chair of SKG Holdings.
“Starting as a part time cleaner over 30 years ago gave me a perspective that can’t be taught, it has to be lived,” Shrestha says.
For managing director George Manoussakis, the move reflects a belief in internal progression as a growth engine. The business has travelled a 50 year path into a $250 million operation and now looks to scale with intent, targeting new markets and a deeper pipeline of work. Shrestha arrives with continuity and momentum. He has spent three decades inside the company, beginning as a part time cleaner while studying accounting and finance, then moving through operational and leadership roles before taking on group COO in 2021. That function now folds into the chief executive role, concentrating strategy and execution under one remit.
Shrestha frames the appointment in personal terms. He describes the step up as humbling, likening the challenge to climbing Everest, a line that captures both ambition and endurance. His leadership stance draws directly from early experience on the tools. Long hours, physical demands and the quiet pride of a job done well still inform how he reads the business today. He speaks about respect, support and visibility for frontline teams as the base layer of performance. In his view, growth holds value when it travels with culture.
Growth with a human centre
As SKG sharpens its acquisition strategy, Shrestha applies a practical filter that extends beyond balance sheets. Cultural alignment sits at the centre, followed by operational standards and the way new teams are welcomed into the organisation. He wants each employee, whether home grown or newly acquired, to feel part of a shared trajectory with room to progress. That stance carries a clear operational implication. Investment in training, defined career pathways and consistent leadership practice becomes the mechanism that turns expansion into sustained performance.
Technology forms the second pillar of the next phase. SKG has invested heavily in systems that mirror the capability of listed competitors, with a focus on integration across service lines. Shrestha points to connected delivery as the next frontier. Data driven scheduling and real time quality tools reshape cleaning into a predictive discipline. Security evolves through the convergence of physical presence and digital intelligence, where remote monitoring and AI assisted surveillance demand skilled interpretation on the ground. Maintenance shifts towards asset lifecycle insight, where predictive analytics reduce downtime and unlock efficiency for clients.
“Growth is important, but it has to be sustainable and aligned with our values,” Shrestha adds.
The ambition sits in the join. A single platform that unites cleaning, security and maintenance into a coherent client experience, scaled with consistency and delivered with clarity. That is where SKG intends to compete hardest.
Across the next five years, success takes a dual form. Commercially, the goal centres on disciplined national expansion, long term partnerships and a reputation for dependable outcomes. Culturally, the brief grows more exacting as the footprint widens. Shrestha wants a workplace where people feel respected and proud, with visible pathways that mirror his own progression. If those conditions hold, he believes growth will follow with substance.
