Jane Ellis appointed V&A’s deputy director and chief operating officer

The V&A has announced the appointment of Jane Ellis as its new deputy director and chief operating officer.

She will take up the role in November, succeeding Tim Reeve in the role. Reeve was recently announced as the new chief executive of English Heritage.

Ellis first joined the V&A in 2019 as director of finance and resources. In her new post she will take on an expanded remit, adding audiences, security, legal and directorate to her existing responsibilities.

In her previous role, Ellis led the technology, people, finance and redesign teams, and later took on responsibility for the commercial division. She guided the V&A's finances through the Covid pandemic and recovery, and oversaw the financial management of the V&A East capital programme.

Ellis established and sponsored the V&A Redesign programme, which has delivered significant projects to help establish the V&A as a family of museums and pioneer work on inclusivity and collaboration. This has included a new approach to volunteering, the Order an Object service at V&A East Storehouse, new visitor experience standards and a multi-site intranet.

Ellis also oversaw the creation of a commercial division that brought together retail, box office and membership to grow visitor-led income.

She is the museum's lead executive on AI, chairing the steering group that oversees the adoption of new technology. She also led development of the V&A's strategy to 2030, Creativity for All.

Before joining the V&A, Ellis was the director of corporate services at the Science Museum Group, where her achievements included the Illuminate daytime conferencing space and the introduction of a ticketed model for the children's gallery Wonderlab.

She began her cultural sector career at the National Gallery, where she served as director of finance and IT. She has held other previous accountancy roles at Deutsche Bank and BMW, and she trained at Arthur Andersen.

Ellis has a degree in English literature from Cambridge and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

V&A director Tristram Hunt said: "Having served so successfully as our director of finance and resources since 2019, Jane brings an exceptional understanding of the museum, its people and its ambitions, alongside strong leadership, ethics and strategic expertise. I greatly look forward to working with Jane in her new role in leading the V&A family."

Ellis said: "At such an important moment for the V&A it is a real privilege to be taking on this role. As we become a fully operational group of museums, I look forward to working with my brilliant executive board colleagues to deliver our new strategy and to support the collaborative, creative community that makes the V&A so special."

The announcement comes as an industrial dispute continues at the V&A over pay and working conditions at its London sites. Four days of strike action by members of Prospect and the Public and Commercial Services Union took place at several sites last month.

V&A has said it remains available for negotiations with the unions.

The museum recently announced that it was exploring a range of cost-saving measures under its 2026-30 strategy in order to ensure its future financial sustainability, including a voluntary exit scheme open to staff across all sites. Full details of the scheme have not yet been published.