James Dean Email & Phone Number

Highlands & Islands

Brodie Castle & Estate

Kendal, Cumbria, United Kingdom

General Manager of Abbot Hall Art Gallery and Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry.

Hoghton Tower Preservation Trust

General Manager of Hoghton Tower, a fortified Tudor manor house near Preston Lancashire. Reporting directly to the board of trustees, I wrote the 5 year business plan for the organisation linking to the strategic plan to become one of the North Wests most valued visitor destinations. I achieved a turnaround from loss making to surplus in an 18 month period with further surplus predicted for years 3 - 5. I achieved this with minimal investment and with a small team of staff. I delivered the extensive events programme, and day to day operation of house tours, tea room, retail, events, corporate events, weddings, filming and fundraising. I was responsible for all aspects of both the trading company, as a director, and of the charity. This responsibility included all Health & Safety, financial management, business planning, I managed and developed a team of staff and volunteers to deliver an excellent visitor experience in one of the North Wests most unique Historic Houses.

I managed the operations of a number of Canal & River Trust's National Museums & Visitor Attractions, including Standedge Visitor Centre in Huddersfield, the Canal Museum in Stoke Bruerne, Northampton, Gloucester Waterways Museum and Trevor Visitor Centre. The sites were a mixture of British Waterway sites and Waterways Trust sites which were amalgamated into Canal & River Trust. This meant a large amount of change management ensuring processes and people were fully integrated into the new structure. Each site was a heritage site with a combination of retail, catering, boat trips, museum and visitor experience. The role required high levels of remote management and substantial travelling. I was part of the management team of the group and I was directly responsible for the General Managers of each site. Mentoring and coaching site managers and developing succession plans for all sites. I delivered and increased excellent customer service across my museums and attractions, ensuring standards were kept high, whilst driving the operation forwards to keep up with the ever changing museums and attractions sector. At all sites I improved financial performance, in some sites more than tripling turnover and increasing profitability in all cases.

Huddersfield, United Kingdom

I managed the Standedge Tunnel & Visitor Centre as well as the Huddersfield Narrow Canal operations. This involved managing a catering operation, retail, visitor experience (boat trip), full maintenance management of the canal. During the time managing the operation I coached and mentored two junior members of staff into duty managers and when I left they took over the General Management role. I delivered a 230% increase in turnover and developed a new operation for the tunnel boat transits, cutting costs and improving customer satisfaction levels. As well as the day to day operation, I wrote a strategic plan and full business plan and budgets for the operation. I was involved in the Health and safety review of the site, completing annual visitor risk assessments and health and safety audits.

Rspb Fairburn Ings

I managed the visitor centre at Fairburn Ings nature reserve including the retail outlet and visitor engagement activities. This involved a number of events, membership recruitment, and retail management, I wrote audience development plans and engagement plans for the site as well as interpretation plans for the site. I delivered the 50th anniversary event and engaged with a number of stakeholders in the delivery of the events. I was made acting site manager for 8 months looking after full operation of the nature reserve including the land management, conservation and habitat management.