Facilities Appointments for The Royal Institution

About The Royal Institution

The Royal Institution of Great Britain (Ri), founded in 1799, is one of the world's most respected scientific organisations, dedicated to making science accessible through education, research and public engagement. It operates from a Grade I listed building on Albemarle Street in Mayfair, London.

The building is far more than a historic landmark. It combines a museum, café, event spaces, offices for Ri staff and accommodation for commercial tenants, and welcomes thousands of visitors a year to internationally recognised lectures, conferences, exhibitions and private events. Maximising its use through venue hire, hospitality and lettings is an organisational objective, and the Ri's commitment to sustainability is being delivered through Project FootpRint, a GLA-funded retrofit programme.

Grade I listing shapes every facilities decision. Works, maintenance, event fit-outs and retrofit measures all have to respect the fabric of the building and the consents that protect it, and that narrows the field of candidates who have done comparable work before.

Our work with The Royal Institution

Over several years the Ri has entrusted Maxwell Stephens with a series of key facilities appointments:

• Head of Facilities, leading facilities management across the Albemarle Street estate
• Facilities Project Manager, leading Project FootpRint
• Facilities Manager (maternity cover, fixed-term), running the building day to day

Head of Facilities

The Ri needed an experienced Head of Facilities to lead every aspect of facilities management across its estate, keeping the building safe, compliant, efficient and welcoming for employees, visitors, event clients, audiences, tenants and contractors. The role also carried tenant management and a commercial remit: optimising space to generate income from events, hospitality and lettings, while influencing at every level of the organisation. Following a competitive tender involving several specialist recruitment agencies, Maxwell Stephens was appointed to run the search.

We ran a targeted search for senior professionals who had worked where heritage, hospitality, commercial operations and compliance meet, looking for senior facilities leadership, contract management and procurement, management of outsourced providers, business continuity and risk, budget ownership, experience of hospitality, events or public-facing venues, and strong stakeholder skills. Cultural fit weighed heavily: the Ri needed someone who could lead through influence rather than authority and pursue continuous improvement while respecting the heritage and values of the organisation.

We presented three candidates for interview, and one of our candidates was appointed. The successful individual brought experience across facilities and contract management, procurement, business continuity, hospitality services, people leadership and operational strategy. In post, the Head of Facilities established high standards of service delivery, strengthened contract management and optimised space usage to support the Ri's financial sustainability.

I've known Peter for a number of years and he has always been attentive honest and approachable. He always looks to find the right role for you and works hard to ensure you're fully prepared for interviews. I would highly recommend his and his team.

Facilities Project Manager: Project FootpRint

As part of its long-term estate strategy, the Ri launched Project FootpRint, a major GLA-funded capital programme to improve the environmental performance of its historic estate, reduce carbon emissions and improve building efficiency while preserving the architectural significance of the property. The Ri asked Maxwell Stephens to recruit a Facilities Project Manager to lead it.

The role covered leading the programme from planning to delivery, managing the retrofit of a Grade I listed building, energy efficiency and carbon reduction, project governance and reporting, budgets and grant-funded expenditure, heritage and planning compliance, project risk, and liaison with consultants, contractors and partners, all while keeping disruption to daily operations, public programmes, tenants and events to a minimum. Interventions that would be routine elsewhere, such as insulation, glazing, plant replacement and services routing, need heritage and planning consent and specialist contractors here. Add grant funding, with its reporting and audit obligations, and the job becomes as much about governance and sequencing as construction.

We worked with the Ri's senior leadership to understand the technical requirements and wider objectives, then searched for people with experience of capital works and retrofit in occupied and listed buildings, sustainability and net zero, grant-funded projects, compliance and governance, and stakeholder engagement. Candidates were assessed on project and programme management, heritage experience, sustainability and energy knowledge, financial control, governance and reporting, risk, and collaborative working style.

Maxwell Stephens placed an experienced Facilities Project Manager with a track record of capital works in heritage environments, sustainability and carbon reduction knowledge, experience of grant-funded programmes with strong governance and reporting, and a collaborative, practical approach. They integrated quickly and took charge of Project FootpRint, driving it forward while maintaining operational continuity, protecting the building's heritage and reporting to the Greater London Authority and trustees.

Facilities Manager (Maternity Cover)

This fixed-term role was responsible for the daily running of the building, including hard services, compliance, team leadership and tenant management. The Facilities Manager also supported the integration of Project FootpRint outcomes into daily operations and the delivery of high-profile events such as the Ri's Christmas Lectures.

As with the other roles, we looked for facilities expertise across operations and compliance, experience of heritage or complex multi-use buildings where museum, commercial, office and events uses share one building, strong tenant and contractor management, and a commitment to sustainability. Candidates were assessed for technical capability and cultural fit in equal measure.

The Facilities Manager provided stability during a period of change, keeping operations, compliance and stakeholder satisfaction on track while supporting both day-to-day facilities management and the Ri's strategic projects.

Why It Worked

Three different roles, one building, one set of values. Each search treated the Ri's context (heritage fabric, public access, commercial tenants and a science mission) as part of the brief rather than background colour, and assessed candidates on how they would operate within it. Heritage retrofit roles in particular fail when they are run as either construction project management searches or facilities searches; the candidates who can deliver a programme like Project FootpRint sit in the overlap, and we defined the brief around it. That approach is why the Ri has returned to Maxwell Stephens over several years.

If you are recruiting facilities leadership for a listed or heritage building, a multi-use public venue or a sustainability retrofit programme, Maxwell Stephens can help you define the brief and reach candidates with directly comparable experience. Get in touch with our team.