Director of Estates & Director of People
for St Monica Trust
St Monica Trust is a Bristol-based charity with a proud history spanning over 100 years, supporting communities where older people can flourish across five retirement villages and four specialist care homes in the South-West.
Since 2021, Moon Executive Search has worked in partnership with the Trust across a range of senior and specialist appointments. As part of this ongoing relationship, we were appointed to deliver two critical Executive-level roles: Director of People and Director of Estates & Capital Developments.
The Director of People role was responsible for leading the Trust’s people strategy, organisational culture and transformation across a workforce of around 1,400 colleagues. The Director of Estates & Capital Developments role combined strategic oversight of the Trust’s property portfolio, capital investment programme and sustainability agenda with operational leadership of estates, maintenance and gardening teams across all sites.
Both roles were central to delivering the Trust’s long-term strategy and required individuals with significant functional expertise as well as strong alignment to the organisation’s values-driven, charitable ethos.
The challenges
Delivering these appointments required a tailored approach for each role whilst maintaining consistency in quality and process.
The Director of People role required an external candidate capable of leading organisational change, shaping culture and delivering a progressive people strategy. This meant identifying candidates with strong strategic HR leadership experience, alongside the ability to operate effectively within a complex, values-led organisation.
The Director of Estates & Capital Developments role presented a different challenge. The brief required a rare combination of strategic leadership and operational estates experience, capital development, sustainability and digital systems, within a limited and highly competitive candidate market.
In addition, there was credible internal candidate for this role. It was therefore essential that the process was demonstrably fair, transparent, and competitive, ensuring confidence for all stakeholders that the final appointment would be based on merit.
Moon’s approach
Moon delivered a combined headhunting and advertised search approach across both roles, ensuring strong market coverage and transparency.
For the Director of People role, the focus was on identifying and attracting high-quality external candidates. Through a targeted and proactive search, we engaged individuals with the capability and experience required to lead transformation and bring external perspective to the organisation.
For the Director of Estates & Capital Developments role, we ran a broad search to ensure both internal and external candidates were fully considered. This resulted in a diverse longlist and a shortlist of 12 strong candidates, with six invited to interview.
Importantly, there was no presumption of an internal appointment for the Estates role. All candidates progressed through the same structured and consistent process, enabling the Trust to benchmark internal capability against the external market and make a fully informed decision.
The outcome
Moon successfully supported St Monica Trust in making both appointments.
Ali Manning was appointed as Director of People, bringing the leadership required to deliver the Trust’s people strategy and organisational development agenda.
Elliot Murray was appointed as Director of Estates & Capital Developments. Although an internal candidate, he emerged as the strongest candidate through a robust and competitive process, demonstrating clear capability and alignment with the Trust’s strategic priorities.
In both cases, the Trust was able to appoint with confidence, knowing each decision had been tested through a thorough and objective process.
Long-standing partnership
Moon Executive Search has partnered with St Monica Trust since 2021, supporting a number of senior and specialist hires.
This ongoing relationship has enabled us to build a strong understanding of the Trust’s culture, values and strategic direction, while continuing to bring external perspective and challenge to each assignment.
By delivering multiple roles over time, we have been able to provide consistency in approach, support effective decision making, and ensure each process is delivered in a fair, transparent, and robust way.
“Moon Executive Search ran a fair, transparent and highly professional process across our senior appointments. The quality and breadth of the shortlist gave us real confidence that we were seeing the very best available talent.”
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