Oxford Preservation Trust

Chief Executive Officer

Salary - £70,000-75,000 (according to experience)
Closing date - 30 May 2023

Oxford is an amazing place and the Oxford Preservation Trust has been its guardian since we were founded in 1927. We have seen many changes and sought to guide them, conserving the best of the old and encouraging the best of the new. We champion Oxford’s built heritage and its green setting. We encourage exemplary new developments and seek to open the City to all who call it home.

Our work has become even more important with time. Indeed, as the pressure on the city increases, as its population expands, and as its requirements become more complex, the Trust is now more necessary than ever before to ensure that Oxford retains its specialness.

We play an important role as an independent voice building partnerships and engaging with people from all parts of the City and its different communities. OPT does this in many ways. It owns or has oversight of more than 1,000 acres of land and a number of historic properties. It engages in heritage projects and in engagement activities with young people and communities. It manages Oxford Castle, organises Oxford Open Doors, the city’s annual heritage open day, and runs the popular Oxford Preservation Trust Awards. It also monitors and responds where necessary to planning applications and listed building consent applications.

We now need to recruit a new CEO to replace Debbie Dance OBE who will retire from the Trust after 25 years in which she has built it into the dynamic and influential organisation it is today. The new CEO will lead a small but passionately committed team and be responsible for imagining the future of OPT as it enters its second century.

The Person:

Our new CEO will have excellent leadership and management skills, a proven ability to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, and first-rate communication skills. They will be committed to widening access to Oxford’s historic environment and to engaging with the broadest possible public. Strong financial planning, fundraising, and budgeting skills will also be required.

The Trust welcomes applications from candidates from a very wide range of backgrounds. Recent experience of leadership in business, cultural, heritage or arts organisations would be an advantage, as would an understanding of how to run a third sector organisation. We seek to celebrate Oxford in all its diversity and welcome applicants with characteristics that have been traditionally under-represented in the heritage sector.

Please read the full job description which can be found here

For enquiries and to apply, please send your CV and covering letter to OOD.Admin@oxfordpreservation.org.uk

Closing Date: 30/05/2023  Location: Oxford