The Harley Street BID is made up of an array of fantastic businesses, organisations and practices.
Each month, we spend some time getting to know one of the people that call Harley Street home.
This month we’re meeting Ashley Durling, Operations Manager at the Harley Street BID.
Ashley (Ash) comes from a very colourful background serving Queen and Country in the Royal Navy as a Marine Engineer serving on a number of warships in different theatre of operations with his last 3 years of service as a Royal Yachtsman on the Royal Yacht Britannia. Ash’s time on the Royal Yacht brought him very close to senior royals and the wider royal family and no doubt he will happily share stories of his adventures where he can. A little-known fact about Ash is that he was in one of the first boy bands by royal command to which he sang to the Royal Family whilst handing a rose of love from his mouth to the Queen performing as part of the Ships Operatic Drama Society aka SODs Opera)
On leaving service Ash took up a couple of roles in high end security within retail , corporate and private healthcare before finding his footing in operations/facilities/security and building management managing small to large teams across a number of Private Healthcare providers in both the Harley Street Area and outer London including Cromwell Hospital , Harley Street Clinic , Blackheath Hospital , Schoen Clinic overseeing small to large projects. Ash’s military approach of getting things done certainly played a significant part in his career as he found himself in some unusual settings outside of his main role from grouting Bathrooms in a suite when a there was an unexpected royal visit , making beds , to going back on the tools when one of his engineers was suddenly taken ill to which was all taken in his stride. Ash’s approach stems from being at sea thousands of miles from land with no support and that you just need to get it done!
Ash joined the BID in May 2024 as our operations manager. It is clear from the outset his experience and expertise gained over a number years along with his can do and disciplined approach is an asset to the BID and its businesses we have already seen a number of projects completed including but not limited to management of the emergency notification (ENS) , secure Comms channel across the footprint , upcoming installation of Public Defibrillator , engagement and coordination with the Metropolitan Police and other security agencies, regular meetings with WCC inspectors. Along with the delivery of various events including but not limited to Fire Training, First Aid Training , WAVE training and ACT training.
Ash lives in Kent being happily married for over 25 years to Mandy and they have a daughter Aimee who is just finishing her training as a Physiotherapist. Ash is very open that his only regret in life is not meeting his wife sooner having only 2 hates in life red tape and bureaucracy . Ash continues his links with the armed forces being a member of the Royal Navy Association and the very exclusive Association of Royal Yachtsmen. Whilst also raising money for the veteran community with Combat Stress ( only recently he ran a half marathon raising money). In his spare time you can often find Ash either running or fishing or in his man cave he built under his house tinkering with N gauge model railways or large technics Lego.
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