NMNI shake-up gathers pace
National Museums Northern Ireland continues restructure by cutting number of director posts from five to three
National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) is heading into the next phase of its ongoing restructuring programme after reducing its number of director posts from five to three.
Director and chief executive Kathryn Thomson says: “We’ve concluded the recruitment process for the three top jobs. We’re now restructuring at the next level down and realigning our organisation to the new strategy and structure.”
According to Thomson, the new roles will help the organisation implement its priorities in the next five years, such as developing its collections, growing and diversifying its audiences and seeking investment in redevelopment across its estate.
Focus on collections
“There’s a real need for us to bring the collections to the front and centre of everything we do as an organisation,” she adds. “In redefining our vision, mission and values, the focus on the collections, both in terms of how we care for, manage and develop those collections, but also in terms of how we make them more accessible, is a key theme that emerged from staff.”
Thomson says NMNI’s grant-in-aid from the Northern Ireland Executive has fallen significantly over the past five years, and her assumptions are that it will drop further.
“We’re trying to align our structure to our strategy, and our resources to the priority areas in which we have to deliver,” she says. “When you come from a position where you’ve had a 30% reduction in your grant funding over five years, and you’ve had a 30% reduction in your headcount, and that hasn’t necessarily been done in a strategic way, not all of your resources are necessarily allocated in the right areas.”
Laura McCorry, the former director of product development at Tourism Northern Ireland, has been appointed director of public engagement. Colin Catney, who was a director at consultancy Opes Business Partners, has been appointed chief operating officer. William Blair has switched from the NMNI’s head of human history to the director of collections.
The three new roles replace director of collections, director of people and performance, director of finance, director of marketing, communications and trading, and director of learning and partnership.
Blair took up his position in March, while the other two directors will start this month.
More partnerships
“We’re increasingly looking to growing collaborations and partnerships, and how we can work with a broader range of partners to increase access to collections,” says Thomson. “We want to better connect the collections with communities and explore opportunities with, for example, local authorities, for a more distributed national collection rather than necessarily through our existing sites.”
McCorry’s experience includes developing strategic partnership programmes and helping to shape delivery of local tourism management plans and the visitor experience with local authorities. Catney has expertise in business strategy development, organisational development and staff engagement. During his time at NMNI, Blair has participated in public programmes relating to the collections, and enhanced the organisation’s academic and public reputation.
Thomson said earlier this year that in five years’ time, she would like to have increased annual visitor numbers from nearly 800,000 in 2015-2016 to a million.
Opportunities include redeveloping the Ulster American Folk Park into a museum of emigration, and enhancing the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum.
Director and chief executive Kathryn Thomson says: “We’ve concluded the recruitment process for the three top jobs. We’re now restructuring at the next level down and realigning our organisation to the new strategy and structure.”
According to Thomson, the new roles will help the organisation implement its priorities in the next five years, such as developing its collections, growing and diversifying its audiences and seeking investment in redevelopment across its estate.
Focus on collections
“There’s a real need for us to bring the collections to the front and centre of everything we do as an organisation,” she adds. “In redefining our vision, mission and values, the focus on the collections, both in terms of how we care for, manage and develop those collections, but also in terms of how we make them more accessible, is a key theme that emerged from staff.”
Thomson says NMNI’s grant-in-aid from the Northern Ireland Executive has fallen significantly over the past five years, and her assumptions are that it will drop further.
“We’re trying to align our structure to our strategy, and our resources to the priority areas in which we have to deliver,” she says. “When you come from a position where you’ve had a 30% reduction in your grant funding over five years, and you’ve had a 30% reduction in your headcount, and that hasn’t necessarily been done in a strategic way, not all of your resources are necessarily allocated in the right areas.”
Laura McCorry, the former director of product development at Tourism Northern Ireland, has been appointed director of public engagement. Colin Catney, who was a director at consultancy Opes Business Partners, has been appointed chief operating officer. William Blair has switched from the NMNI’s head of human history to the director of collections.
The three new roles replace director of collections, director of people and performance, director of finance, director of marketing, communications and trading, and director of learning and partnership.
Blair took up his position in March, while the other two directors will start this month.
More partnerships
“We’re increasingly looking to growing collaborations and partnerships, and how we can work with a broader range of partners to increase access to collections,” says Thomson. “We want to better connect the collections with communities and explore opportunities with, for example, local authorities, for a more distributed national collection rather than necessarily through our existing sites.”
McCorry’s experience includes developing strategic partnership programmes and helping to shape delivery of local tourism management plans and the visitor experience with local authorities. Catney has expertise in business strategy development, organisational development and staff engagement. During his time at NMNI, Blair has participated in public programmes relating to the collections, and enhanced the organisation’s academic and public reputation.
Thomson said earlier this year that in five years’ time, she would like to have increased annual visitor numbers from nearly 800,000 in 2015-2016 to a million.
Opportunities include redeveloping the Ulster American Folk Park into a museum of emigration, and enhancing the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum.