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, stepped down last month 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.
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.