The Client and Brief

Yoo Capital and DFI appointed MRG to recruit an Estates Director for Olympia, one of the world’s most ambitious regeneration projects. Originally built as an exhibition venue nearly 140 years ago, Olympia is now undergoing a £1.3bn transformation into London’s newest cultural hub, blending entertainment, innovation, hospitality, and commerce.

Olympia Estate Services (OES), a dedicated management company, will oversee daily operations. The Estates Director will lead OES, ensuring high-quality service, strong stakeholder engagement, and a seamless experience for visitors, tenants, and partners.

Overcoming Challenges

This role required a unique combination of senior leadership, stakeholder influence, and operational expertise across commercial property, entertainment, and hospitality. The scale and diversity of the estate required the successful candidate to unify service partners and establish a culture of excellence across all touchpoints.

As the campaign progressed, stakeholder feedback led to a refinement of the brief, with added emphasis on experience managing high-footfall, mixed-use destinations, and a greater focus on service charge governance and placemaking strategy.

Our Process

MRG partnered closely with Olympia’s internal leadership team and external advisors to deliver a strategic and insight-led executive search campaign.

To reflect the scale, complexity, and ambition of the transformation underway at Olympia, we developed a suite of high-impact candidate generation materials which included a bespoke candidate briefing pack, branded digital assets, and a targeted social media strategy. These were designed to engage senior talent across a range of sectors and aligned markets.

Our research and detail-oriented approach included comprehensive market mapping and talent benchmarking, assessing over 270 senior leadership profiles against a rigorous competency matrix covering commercial delivery, operational leadership, and stakeholder engagement. We conducted more than 190 confidential direct approaches across the UK and key international markets, culminating in a longlist of 31 qualified individuals who were assessed by our team.

Following a structured three-stage interview process, facilitated in collaboration with Yoo Capital, Deutsche Finance International (DFI), and the operational stakeholders, a final shortlist of 12 candidates was presented. The appointed candidate brings a distinguished track record of delivering operational excellence and large-scale placemaking programmes, along with the leadership acumen required to navigate a multi-stakeholder, high-profile destination of this magnitude.

The Campaign in Numbers

10300 +
MARKETING BROCHURE VIEWS
11100 +
LINKEDIN IMPRESSIONS
31 +
LONG-LISTED CANDIDATES
12
SHORT-LISTED CANDIDATES