New Director for West Horsley Place Trust

Published on: 25 Sep, 2022
Updated on: 27 Sep, 2022

West Horsley Place © Richard-Lewisohn

The West Horsley Place Trust has announced that Ilona Harris has been appointed as the charity’s new director. She will take up her appointment on November 1 2022.

Ms Harris was previously Head of Commercial at the Weald & Downland Living Museum in West Sussex where she supported the charity’s growth to financial stability.

New director Ilona Harris

Her experience also includes head of corporate partnerships at the Tate, where she generated partnerships worth over £18 million including several multi-year relationships; senior business manager at the Royal Opera House and corporate giving manager at the English National Opera.

She succeeds Ben Pearce, who is stepping down as director for family reasons.

Adrian Lajtha, Chairman of the West Horsley Place Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Ilona Harris as the new Director of the West Horsley Place Trust.  Ilona brings a wealth of experience and demonstrated leadership success.  We are greatly looking forward to Ilona joining the West Horsley Place family and leading the next important stage in the exciting development of the Trust.”

“I also want to convey on behalf of my fellow trustees our deep thanks to Ben Pearce, our outgoing Director, who has worked tirelessly over the past two exceptionally challenging years to lead the Trust on its ambitious journey towards restoring West Horsley Place and making it a place of welcome for the community.

“Ben has brought a very great deal to the Trust over this time and we wish him and his family immensely well in the future.”

Ilona Harris said: “I’m delighted to be joining the team at West Horsley Place. It has achieved so much in such a short space of time and has a great future ahead of it.

“The team bring great expertise, creativity and passion to making West Horsley the place for people to access arts, culture, heritage and nature and I’m excited to be part of it as we take bold steps forward.”

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