Facilities & Operations Appointments for Sotheby's Institute of Art

About Sotheby's Institute of Art

Sotheby's Institute of Art was founded in 1969 and is one of the world's leading postgraduate institutions dedicated to the study of art, the art market and cultural heritage. Its programmes cover subjects including Art Business, Contemporary Art, Fine & Decorative Art, Design, and Modern & Contemporary Asian Art, and attract students from around the world.

The London campus occupies a collection of Georgian buildings on Bedford Square, one of the capital's finest historic garden squares, and the Institute's London operation runs across two distinct sites. Running a modern educational institution in a heritage setting needs facilities people who can keep the buildings safe and compliant while making staff, students, visitors and external clients feel looked after.

Our work with Sotheby's Institute of Art

• Head of Facilities & Operations, a senior leadership role reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (exclusive search)
• Facilities Manager, covering the two London sites and deputising for the Head of Facilities & Operations

Head of Facilities & Operations

After a number of unsuccessful campaigns through several agencies, the Institute appointed Maxwell Stephens exclusively to recruit a Head of Facilities & Operations. Reporting to the CEO and sitting on the senior leadership team, the role covered all facilities and building operations, hard and soft services, front of house and customer service teams, contractor and supplier management, long-term space planning, relationships with landlords and professional advisers, health and safety and risk, maintenance, cleaning, security and first aid, room utilisation, operational budgets and reporting, and support for the Institute's commercial strategy.

Searches like this often stall in heritage and cultural settings for a familiar reason: candidates who are credible on compliance and building operations are not always credible in front of a chief executive, a landlord or an external client, and this role needed all three. Working with the Institute's leadership team, we agreed a detailed profile and searched senior facilities leaders from premium education, cultural, hospitality and corporate environments, with experience of heritage buildings, front of house, space planning, compliance, procurement, budgets, team leadership and commercial property operations. Higher education experience, property qualifications and an appreciation of the arts were especially attractive.

We presented a shortlist of four candidates. All four progressed to interview, and one was appointed. The successful individual brought extensive leadership experience across facilities management, workplace operations and property management, and the role covers facilities and operational performance, the campus customer experience, contractor management, space planning, health and safety governance, and operational and property strategy.

Facilities Manager

The Institute also engaged Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities Manager for London, a role central to keeping both sites safe, efficient and welcoming. A comprehensive job description set out the responsibilities and essential criteria from the start. Three aspects of the brief narrowed the field:

• Breadth across two sites. Building operations and compliance on two distinct sites, with the front-of-house standards of a reception operation on top.
• Deputising for the Head of Facilities & Operations. The readiness to step up when required, which calls for more judgement and stakeholder confidence than a typical facilities manager role.
• Flexibility around events. Willingness to work flexible hours to support special events and cover for colleagues was essential.

We assessed experience and personal attributes with equal weight: prior facilities management in similar environments, covering building operations, health and safety compliance and vendor management; a service mindset, since the role is visible to staff, students and visitors every day; and readiness to make decisions and coordinate across departments in the Head of Facilities & Operations' absence.

The candidate placed demonstrated facilities expertise, a proactive and customer-centric manner, flexibility and initiative, effective communication across departments and stakeholders, and strong IT skills including Outlook, Word and Excel. The new Facilities Manager integrated into the team quickly and took on the oversight of building operations and the management of events, helping the Institute maintain a safe, healthy environment for learning and collaboration.

Why It Worked

Both searches were assessed against the whole role rather than the part that is easiest to evidence on a CV. For the Head of Facilities & Operations, every shortlisted candidate was judged on leadership, culture and presence as well as technical facilities capability, which is why all four reached interview. For the Facilities Manager, the service and deputising elements were tested alongside compliance, because those are what decide whether the person succeeds in a busy education environment.

If you are recruiting a facilities or operations leader for a heritage, cultural or educational estate, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and reach the candidates who genuinely fit it. Get in touch with our team.