Head of Hospitality & Events; Morden College

Blackheath, London, with oversight of events at Beckenham | Full time | Salary: £65,000 per annum

Civitas Recruitment are delighted to be supporting Morden College in the search for a Head of Hospitality and Events. Founded in 1695, Morden College is a historic charity providing homes and support for older people living independently. Its Blackheath estate combines heritage buildings, extensive green space and the award-winning John Morden Centre.

This is an exciting senior role combining operational leadership with commercial development. You will lead hospitality, catering and events services while developing the College's venues and spaces to generate sustainable income for the charity.

• Lead a professional, financially sustainable hospitality and events operation across the College's sites.
• Develop and grow commercial events, venue hire, partnerships and appropriate filming/location opportunities.
• Oversee Cafe 19, bar operations, catering and event hospitality, maintaining high standards of service and customer experience.
• Develop pricing, operating procedures and commercial approaches that support income growth and efficient delivery.
• Manage hospitality and events budgets with turnover in the region of £1-2 million, including forecasting, margins, procurement and cost control.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team and promote professionalism, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Ensure safe and compliant delivery across food safety, licensing, health and safety and wider operational requirements.

You will be an experienced hospitality, catering, venue or events leader with strong commercial judgement and the ability to combine strategic thinking with hands-on operational leadership. You will also possess :

• Significant experience managing successful hospitality, catering, venue or events operations.
• Proven experience planning, selling and delivering profitable events or developing commercial venue income.
• Strong financial management capability, ideally including budgets of £1 million or more.
• Proven people leadership and experience managing multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong knowledge of hospitality compliance, service standards and customer experience.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills and the ability to work collaboratively at senior level.
• Heritage venue, filming/location hire or hospitality systems experience would be advantageous.