I’m sure Icon members would be interested to learn something about your career
I’m a Chartered Surveyor and was an Equity Partner and Board Member of a thousand-strong, international firm of real estate advisors. I qualified in London then moved to Leeds and spent the 1980s working on large regeneration schemes. These involved lots of local authority clients and during the 1990s we broadened this into becoming the largest advisor on strategic property projects to the UK public sector as a whole. We sold the firm in 2007 and I spent a number of years running our purchaser’s consultancy business before opting for a portfolio career a few years ago.
I’ve always pursued ‘outside interests’ because I’ve always felt the experience they give you is very transferrable and because they make life more interesting. I’ve got quite a bit of experience of serving on boards in the commercial, central government, charity, NHS, cultural and university sectors.
What attracted you to Icon?
My personal interests have always been in the general areas of art, culture and heritage all my life and I was very attracted by the prospect of being able to put my experience at the service of causes I really care about.
How visible was Icon to you before you applied?
Very visible. I’m not a conservator, as you know, but I’ve actually had a fair bit to do with conservators. A number of Icon members have worked with me at a small charity called the York Consortium for Conservation & Craftsmanship or received bursaries from the Consortium. I have managed a bursary programme for the last ten years and each year I liaise with about seventy to eighty applicants in a process which provides around twenty bursaries a year to conservators and ten to craftspeople.
So, lots of conversations every year about training and skills and career development but also lots of discussions about low incomes, limited opportunities and job insecurities. But through all that what really shines though is a commitment and conviction about the importance of cultural heritage and its conservation. Each year I’ve tended to involve some donors on a judging panel where we interview conservator applicants and I do this because I absolutely know that they will be knocked out by the skill, the dedication and the passion.
You also have experience with museums, don’t you?
Yes. I’m on the advisory board of Locomotion in County Durham which is a sister to the National Railway Museum and part of the Science Museum Group. More significantly I’ve spent some years as trustee and am now Chair of York Museums Trust. The trust has about a hundred and fifty staff, four hundred volunteers, two museums, an art gallery, a park, a ruined abbey, a deconsecrated medieval church and a fundraising appetite of £50m. We also have seven warehouses housing about 1 to1.5 million objects.
But in amongst these big numbers we don’t have a single conservator on the payroll. That’s partly because of the way exhibition funding works, partly perhaps because the voice of conservation got drowned out by the voices of curation, interpretation and visitor experience. But it’s also because, frankly, the museum sector is not an easy place to work at the moment. Seven years ago, over 90% of our funding came from the local authority, this year above 90% is self-generated and we’ll make a small surplus. This insufficient emphasis on conservation is something I would like to change, both in York and nationally.
You took up the role of Chair formally in the New Year, but I know you started meeting Icon staff and members before that. What are your early impressions?
My initial impression is that it’s a very professional team with a clear view of where it wants to have impact and I’ve been impressed with some of the specific proposals that are in the pipeline. I believe we should aim to increase the amount of conservation that society choses to pay for. Proposals like the new Conservation Register and the Collections Care Audit initiative with the Association of Independent Museums are about making this an easier market to hire and buy from.
I believe Icon’s voice can be increasingly instrumental in raising salaries and improving employment benefits through measures like the work with Prospect and by investing in Labour Market Intelligence research. I also think Icon is very well-placed to influence behaviour in the adoption of more environmentally sustainable practices. And I’m intrigued at the many possibilities for Icon to grow its membership and influence, both in the UK and internationally. All of these good things, however, require that we are not deflected from our wider thought leadership and influence.
Whilst I’ve been impressed at many of the things I’ve seen so far, I recognise that Icon is poised to enter the next phase of its development and, clearly, has scope to become a larger, more influential and financially resilient organisation.
When you spoke at our AGM you said that you preferred getting out and about to reading Board papers. What sort of Chair do you think we can expect?
What I actually said was that non-executive roles don’t really seem that worth doing if all one does is read papers and turn up to Board meetings. These things are vitally important but, to me, it’s really important to spend time with members and with stakeholders around the country. It’s important to be visible, it’s vital to really get a good feel for the environment Icon members operate within and, of course, it’s enjoyable too. I’m really looking forward to the next few months.
What do you like to do to relax?
My wife, Liz, and I both have lots of interests and a busy social life and neither of us divide our lives into separate boxes labelled ‘work’ and ‘hobbies’. We live in rural North Yorkshire but spend a fair bit of time in London where our four daughters live and also in France.
I like to spend time visiting museums and galleries which, I suppose, is a bit of a busman’s holiday – particularly as I’ve developed the thoroughly nerdy habit of photographing donor boards and recording the names on a database. I spend most of my life talking to people, so for real, proper relaxation I love just tuning out in the garden, fiddling around with my Dahlia and Iris collections, both of which now exceed one hundred varieties.