The chief executive of the trust that runs the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum is to leave his post next month.
Hedley Swain emailed staff to announce his departure, saying: “I have a new exciting opportunity in my personal life and with my wife will be moving to Sweden where we already have a home and where my wife has secured a senior post in a Stockholm Museum.
“I am sorry to be going. It has been a tumultuous and occasionally stressful six years but I have loved being in Brighton and (am) proud of all we have achieved.”
A former Arts Council area director, Mr Swain was appointed to the newly created trust in September 2020. He added: “I wish the trust every success on its ongoing journey and look forward to watching progress.
“Thanks to everyone who has supported me and a special thanks to a great leadership team and my amazing executive board colleagues.
“Trustees will now start the process of finding a new CEO. But until the end of October, it is business as usual and until then I will be doing all I can to ensure our ongoing success.”
The chair, Michael Bedingfield, announced last month that he was stepping down although he remains a trustee.
The changes follow a challenging spell for the trust – or “tumultuous” as Mr Swain called it.
Staff went on strike for two days in April after the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust, also known as Brighton and Hove Museums, proposed going back on a pledge to match council pay rates.
Many of the staff were previously employed by Brighton and Hove City Council before it set up the trust.
During the dispute, Oliver Cruickshank, the GMB regional organiser, said: “We understand that the trust may be facing serious monetary issues.
“But it is not our members – the lowest-paid but most important staff within the trust – who should shoulder the blame for this nor the responsibility to dig the trust out of any holes.”
Three days of strikes had been due to take place at the start of June but were called off after the GMB’s position was made public.
In the lead up to the strike, Labour councillor Amanda Grimshaw resigned as a trustee and sent a critical resignation letter which became public a few months ago.
She was mayor of Brighton and Hove at the time of her resignation and said: “Staff are paralysed by fear.”
The trust said that it took all matters relating to staff welfare extremely seriously.
Other trustees have told Brighton and Hove News that it had indeed been a “tumultuous” period for the organisation, with another trustee, David Anderson, having been ousted in a move that divided the board.
Shortly afterwards, Abigail Thomas, the chief operating officer and deputy chief executive, emailed staff to say that Mr Anderson had been the subject of whistleblowing complaints.
She gave a “firm commitment to strong governance, transparency and protecting our workplace culture”.
Mr Anderson previously served as director general of the National Museum Wales, joining from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), in London, where he held a senior position. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Royal Pavilion when it was run by the old Brighton Borough Council.
Mr Bedingfield said: “On behalf of the board of trustees and everyone at Brighton and Hove Museums, I want to express our deep gratitude to Hedley for his dedicated leadership over the past six years.
“Hedley has steered the trust through significant challenges and opportunities with steady vision, deep sector expertise and genuine passion for our cultural heritage.
“He leaves the organisation in a strong position for the future and we wish him and his wife every success as they begin this exciting new chapter in Sweden.”
Ms Thomas will become interim chief executive from the end of next month while the board recruits a permanent successor for Mr Swain.
The trust said: “Operations and upcoming programming across all sites remain business as usual.”
The trust is responsible for the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, the Booth Museum of Natural History, Hove Museum and Preston Manor, all of which remain owned by the council.
Jumped ship before he was pushed? I think he has been angling for a new job for a while, hence his frequent absences in London. He certainly took his eye off the ball. Hopefully we get someone who can dig us out of the hole he helped create.
He’s moving to Sweden Ann.
It says so in the article that his wife had got a job there.
I’d expect him (and his successor) to be spending time in London meeting with bodies like the Lottery, potential donors and other museums.
It’s doesn’t mean he’s been after a new job. In any case how would you know?
Yeah, or maybe his wife has found a very well paid job in a country with less Ann’s in it.
Sounds a bit dodgy
Good heavens. I leave Ann E Nicky and ChrisC alone for five minutes and already we are debating the migratory habits of museum executives.
Whether Mr Swain is jumping ship, boarding a longboat or simply following his wife to Sweden seems rather less interesting than the condition of the vessel he leaves behind.
A departing Chief Executive. A departing Chair. Industrial action. A trustee resignation accompanied by the extraordinary observation that staff were “paralysed by fear”. Another trustee removed amid whistleblowing complaints. And a period the organisation itself describes as “tumultuous”.
Lady B has sat on enough boards to know that when quite so many pieces leave the chessboard in quick succession, the appropriate response is not merely to advertise for replacements.
The trustees – and, given that these magnificent buildings remain publicly owned, the council – might reasonably explain what lessons have been learned about governance, culture and oversight before everyone simply declares “business as usual”.
Because, my dears, whatever else this may be, it does not sound terribly usual.
Fascinating analysis, “Lady B.” It must be wonderfully easy to lecture everyone on strategy and board dynamics from the safety of an anonymous comment section.
If you had actually sat on so many boards, you would know that throwing dramatic hand-wringing tantrums online does not solve complex governance issues. The simple truth is that the trust has remained remarkably strong through horrific post-Brexit and post-Covid circumstances, securing substantial funding that the council never could have achieved on its own.
Less theatrical pot-stirring and a bit more respect for the actual work being done would serve you far better, “my dear.”
Algernon, my dear – one should never mistake asking questions for throwing tantrums. Although I confess there is something strangely familiar about the vigour with which you make the distinction.
And thank you for the “my dear”. Such a wonderfully versatile little expression. It can convey genuine warmth and affection – or, deployed rather differently, imply that the recipient’s age and perhaps even grey matter have rendered their observations rather less worthy of consideration.
Lady Bracknell has always used it in the former sense and intends to continue doing so.
But let us leave that there.
Life is rarely easy, and leadership still less so. Organisations face difficult circumstances, boards make difficult decisions and, occasionally, even with the very best intentions, things do not go according to plan. There is no shame in that.
Indeed, if the Trust has secured substantial funding and successfully navigated the extraordinary difficulties of Brexit and Covid, that deserves recognition. Those achievements should not be diminished simply because there are also difficult questions to answer.
But good governance is not demonstrated by insisting that everything has gone well. It is demonstrated by transparency when it has not – by listening, explaining what has been learned and showing how an organisation intends to emerge stronger.
None of us commenting here knows every detail of what has happened behind closed doors. That is precisely why transparency matters.
So I wish Mr Swain well. I wish his successor every success. I wish the trustees and staff well too, and sincerely hope the organisation emerges from what has clearly been a difficult period stronger, happier and more united, while preserving some of this city’s greatest cultural assets.
Respecting those who undertake difficult jobs and asking reasonable questions of those entrusted with public institutions are not mutually exclusive, my dear Algernon.
A good board should welcome both.
And since you have so generously chosen the name Algernon, perhaps your namesake’s formidable aunt should be permitted the final word:
“I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
The museum is more dull than a rainy night out in Newhaven most of the exhibits haven’t changed in 50 years the new Brighton and hove Albion exhibition is full of a load of old tat the only things in the trophy room are a blue and white carpet and a charity shield from 1910 this won’t change again this season away to arsenal in the league cup means we’re out , we end up lower down the table every season , we won’t do a palace who I now follow as they know how to win trophies in europe and we’ll probably get dumped out of the fa cup by a non league side which we have a long history of doing perhaps , a new café in the museum might bring in more visitor numbers as it doesn’t matter what time of day it is there’s always someone stuffing their face