Trustees

Trustees, West Dean 

The Edward James Foundation Limited, operating as West Dean, is appointing four Trustees, each serving as a charity trustee and company director.

West Dean is a distinctive and complex charity. It combines a specialist higher education institution in arts, design, craft and conservation with an extensive short-course programme, an internationally significant collection, award-winning gardens, visitor and hospitality operations, and the stewardship of a substantial historic estate.

This is an opportunity to help shape the long-term development of an organisation with an exceptional educational, cultural and natural inheritance. Collectively, the new Trustees will strengthen the Board in four priority areas:

• strategic transformation and governance;
• audit and assurance, including the capacity to become Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee;
• estates, heritage, visitor experience and commercial development; and
• academic and higher education governance

Candidates will bring substantial senior leadership, board-level or equivalent experience within a complex organisation, together with sound judgement, strategic perspective and financial literacy. We are looking for people who understand good governance, can balance support with constructive challenge, and will contribute beyond their own specialist field. A commitment to West Dean’s charitable purpose, public benefit and long-term sustainability is essential.

West Dean welcomes candidates from all backgrounds and particularly encourages those whose perspectives are underrepresented in charity, cultural and higher education governance. Previous trusteeship is not essential.

The roles are unremunerated and require approximately 10 to 12 days each year. Meetings are normally held at the West Dean campus in West Sussex, with some meetings in London.

For further information and details of how to apply, please visit https://andersonquigley.com/west-dean-trustees

For a confidential conversation, please contact Hélène Usherwood at helene.usherwood@andersonquigley.com or +44 (0)7719 322 669, or Aino Betts at aino.betts@andersonquigley.com or +44 020 4526 6913

Closing date: 09 October 2026