Chief Executive (permanent)
Closing date:
Interview dates:
Start date:
09.00 on Mon 07 December 2015
Tue 15 and Wed 16 December 2015 (both dates)
as soon as possible
Background
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is an open-access festival and is the greatest arts
festival in the world. In 2015, 27,918 participants staged 50,459 performances of more
than 3,314 shows with an estimated 2.3 million tickets issued bringing an estimated
£141M into the city’s economy.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society (EFFS) is a charity and the organisation that
underpins the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and exists to deliver the following mission:
Mission Statement
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society fundamentally exists to:

Advise, support and encourage all participants
EFFS advises, supports and encourages anyone who wants to take part in the
festival, whether they be individual artists at any career stage, producers and
performing companies, venue producers, arts industry professionals or members
of the media.

Provide comprehensive, accurate up-to-date information services,
including ticketing, to its participants and the public
EFFS provides information and ticketing through a central box office offering
tickets to every show on the Fringe with over 20 collections points across
Edinburgh), the official programme, website, mobile app and listings API.

Promote the entire Fringe, in the context of Edinburgh and its other
festivals, in Scotland, around the UK and throughout the rest of the world.
EFFS markets the event in its entirety locally nationally and internationally to
participants, the public, media and arts industry (we accredit over 1,000 industry
professionals from over 40 countries each year and over 1,000 international
media) to retain our position as the world’s leading arts festival.
Structure
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is a membership organisation. The Chief
Executive reports to a Board of Directors of up to 16 members which is three-quarters
elected by the membership and is currently chaired by Professor Sir Tim O’Shea. The
Board and Executive interact through a Finance Audit and Risk committee which
meets every six weeks, a Business Planning Committee which meets annually, a
Constitutional Review Working Group which meets annually and a Box Office and IT
working group which monitors significant contracts the Society has engaged. The
Chief Executive job description (November 2015)
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Chief Executive is supported by a team of three senior managers within a permanent
staff of 23, with an additional 160 temporary staff in the summer months.
EFFS is a financially and reputationally robust organisation with retained reserves at
year end November 2014 of £1.3M and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe enjoys a
significant reputation as a flagship cultural event and a significant, international arts
market for artists in Scotland, UK and internationally.
Business Plan
Context
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society recognises that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
is the greatest festival on earth; that the Society’s support is integral to its success,
and that we always adhere to the founding principle of open access. The Fringe
Society is defined by the Fringe and must strike the right balance between the state of
the festival and the state of the Society, recognising that we have the opportunity to
influence the state of the festival and must be pro-active in protecting and improving
it. The Fringe Society must also ensure it meets its duties as a charity, as an employer
and as a viable business.
The current business plan will see our continued development as the world’s leading
arts festival. The Fringe is an integral part of the arts industry within Scotland, the UK
and the rest of the world. It is our responsibility to maintain an environment where
people recognise the Fringe as a valuable place to bring their work, where industry
and media from all across the globe come to discover work, and where audiences from
Scotland, the rest of the UK and rest of the world come to experience the greatest
explosion of culture on the planet.
Vision:
Our vision for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is that it remains the greatest festival at
which to:
• perform/produce
• run a venue
• develop a career
• visit
• discover/find new art/work/talent
• cover/commentate
• be employed
EFFS provides support, education, development and training to our staff and to our
constituents to achieve the above whilst ensuring we remain a sustainable and
environmentally aware organisation and a conscientious and respected employer.
The Society acknowledges that our key constituents, crucial to the continued vitality
and success of the Fringe, are: participants, arts industry, media and audience.
EFFS is committed to maintaining the open access policy of the Fringe.
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Strategic Priorities
2015 marked year one of a new five-year business plan. Written and approved at the
end of 2014, the strategic priorities are:
1.
2.
A fundamental shift in the financial business model of the Society;
Reduced handling fees for audience;
3.
4.
5.
Development and implementation of the international strategy;
Better handling, manipulation, analysis and usage of data;
Development of audiences and the Fringe Box Office – increasing overall
market share, access and ticketing options;
Support participation; ensure the Fringe remains a valuable experience and a
professional platform;
Support innovation, new initiatives and development of technologies and
systems [to support our mission statement];
Community engagement.
6.
7.
8.
These eight priorities continue to support our overarching mission statement.
Business planning progress is monitored through the Business Planning Committee.
EFFS is committed to reducing its environmental impacts in its everyday operations.
We are an Equal Opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of
the community. We also participate in the Two Ticks – Positive about Disabled People
scheme. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their
realisation.
Role and Responsibilities
The Chief Executive provides overall leadership of EFFS and has overall responsibility
for:
Planning and Strategy:
• Ensuring the continued success of the Festival Fringe, building further its
strong international reputation and brand.
• Providing overall leadership of EFFS, including the development of strategic
plans alongside the Board of Directors, and the implementation of these
strategies with the senior management team.
• Focussing the organisation on its core objectives, and its current Business Plan
priorities, implementing the current Business Plan 2015 - 2019.
• Evaluating and reporting on priorities across the organisation to Board and
external stakeholders.
• Providing overall strategic direction for the Society’s IT Strategy including box
office system, mobile app, databases, open API project and website.
• Development and implementation of International Strategy - establish/affirm
EFFS’s position as the place to come from anywhere in the world to
perform, watch, buy or cover work and ensure that the Fringe maintains and
grows a significant international profile and engagement from audiences,
participants, media and industry throughout the world.
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•
Increasing engagement throughout our local communities to develop new
audiences, increase participation, offer opportunities and enhance support for
the Festival Fringe as a whole. This will also include work with accessibility
partners to remove physical, social, financial and geographic barriers and
increase engagement by those who currently find it difficult to access the
Fringe.
Financial Management:
• Aligning the financial performance of EFFS to the agreed business planning
priorities, annually and over the life of the business plan.
• Developing new models for income generation, identifying commercial and
business development opportunities.
• Financial modelling of registration and handling fee structures.
• Accountability for annual Society budget of circa £4M including ensuring
appropriate control and external audit and reporting are in place.
• Responsibility for financial performance, including the setting and achieving of
financial targets.
• Accountability for serious incident management procedures, internal and
external risk map and strategic contingency planning.
Profile and Presentation:
• Being the spokesperson for the Fringe Society at major events, media
engagements (broadcast and print) and interviews.
• Development of audiences, reputation, brand and organisation, working with
the Head of Marketing and Sponsorship to develop marketing strategy.
• Representing the Fringe and public speaking about the festival, Society and
arts internationally and across the UK (approx. 8 international trips per year).
Stakeholder Relationships:
• Developing and maintaining excellent collaborative relationships with public
bodies, sponsors, commercial partners, individual donors, stakeholders
(current and potential) in Edinburgh, Scotland, the UK and overseas.
• Maintaining positive and practical relationships with local, Scottish and UK
government, working cross party to ensure the stability and future of the
Festival Fringe in the landscape of Scottish and UK arts policy.
• Lobbying for and negotiating acceptable licensing and public safety legislation
• Maintaining and developing excellent, robust and intuitive relationships with the
Fringe key constituents of venues, participants, media and industry
representatives.
• Oversight of support for Fringe participants including individual artists,
producers, production companies and venue managers including support on
contractual and financial deal matters to ensure EFFS continues to meet the
needs of constituents.
• Ensuring that the organisation is well-informed about the needs of its
stakeholders and that its services are appropriately designed and targeted.
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Governance and Staffing:
• Acting as Company Secretary.
• Effective governance and communication with the Board of Directors, including
ensuring the timely and effective production of all necessary planning and
evaluation material, including appropriate financial plans and accounts.
• Continuing the ongoing process of constitutional review ensuring the Society
is fulfilling its responsibilities to compliance bodies, as well as the membership.
• Ensuring the successful integration of the business plan in all departments of
the organisation through collaboration and coordination cross departmentally.
• Recruiting the senior management team and all permanent staff.
• Line management of the senior management team.
Festivals Edinburgh:
Building on a culture of collaborative working the Directors of Edinburgh’s twelve
leading Festivals came together in 2007 to formally establish Festivals Edinburgh with
a mission to support Edinburgh’s Festivals in sustaining and developing their position
as the world’s leading festival city through development and delivery of collaborative
projects and initiatives which support growth, product development, leadership and
audiences; acting on behalf of and representing the collective strengths of the
Edinburgh Festivals.
The EFFS Chief Executive will:
• Maintain an proactive and engaged role for the Fringe and EFFS within
Festivals Edinburgh
• Serve as a director of Festivals Edinburgh (EFFS held the chair of Festivals
Edinburgh from 2010 – 2013)
• Play an active role in other working groups as necessary (EFFS is current chair
of Joint Audiences Group)
• Input into research and development strategy e.g. 2011 Edinburgh Festivals
Impact Study/Thundering hooves 1 and 2/Desire Lines
Person Specification
You will be an excellent, inspiring leader who will lead the performance of EFFS,
building on the commitment and enthusiasm of your team. You will be creative, able
to deliver operational excellence and have the ability to generate new ideas in the
context of a small, fast-moving service organisation.
Personal Profile
Leadership and Strategic Ability:
• Understands the cultural landscape of Edinburgh and Scotland and the wider
UK.
• Understand the role of the Festival Fringe in an international cultural landscape.
• Capable of representing the organisation in all situations.
• Capable of inspiring and nurturing staff and stakeholders.
• Highly collaborative.
• Ability to develop successful, long-term working relationships with the
constituents and stakeholders of EFFS.
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Personal skills:
• Ability to understands and interpret needs and expectations of stakeholders.
• Readily establishes rapport and engagement.
• Ability to sustain excellent relationships across a wide range of business and
cultural settings.
• Engenders confidence and commitment from others.
• Adept at identifying talent and committed to developing staff potential.
Problem Solving:
• Capable of managing complexity and uncertainty.
• Quick to understand issues.
• Readily adjusts and adapts to changing circumstances.
• Capable of creative thinking innovation and flexibility.
• Facilitates calm, fair issue resolution.
Essential key competencies:
• Proven success in senior management roles in the arts, entertainment or
events sectors.
• Broad and diverse management experience and a track record of achievement
at senior level in managing and delivering major projects and programmes on
time and to budget.
• A well-established professional profile (or the demonstrated potential to
develop one), capable of representing the festival locally and internationally
and maintaining the positive reputation of the organisation and the brand.
• Proven ability to develop and implement organisational strategies to enhance
the festival’s reputation and success.
• A record of collaborative and inspired leadership of people, organisational
development, and effective human resource management practice.
• A proven ability to inspire, motivate and manage staff.
• Proven track record in developing, strengthening and managing a broad range
of stakeholders across government, public and private and performing arts
sectors.
• Proven strengths in budgeting, financial modelling and financial management
and understanding of the commercial requirements of the organisation.
• Experience of setting and managing significant and complex budgets.
• Experience of generating significant income and fundraising from diverse
revenue streams.
• Knowledge and experience developing and overseeing marketing strategies
that align with established brand objectives and key organisational messages.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, including significant media
experience.
Desirable key competencies:
• Demonstrable experience in charity governance.
• Knowledge and/or direct experience of the landscape of the Edinburgh Festival
Fringe and the wider Edinburgh Festivals.
• Broad ranging national and international performing arts industry connections.
• Broad ranging national and international media connections.
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Salary and Benefits
Salary commensurate with experience and standing of the role.
EFFS will contribute a minimum of 4.5% towards the company pension scheme as
well as 28 days holiday per year plus 6 public holidays.
The role will involve significant national and international travel. There is no overtime
entitlement, but the Society does maintain a TOIL policy.
How to apply
For further information please contact Lyndsey Jackson (Head of Operations)
on 0131 226 0026 or recruitment@edfringe.com
If you would like to apply for the position please download and complete the application
form and email it to recruitment@edfringe.com or print it out and post to:
Recruitment
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
180 High Street
Edinburgh
EH1 1QS
Please also attach a covering letter (three pages maximum) which should explain why
the post interests you and demonstrates how you have the range of relevant skills and
experience as set out in the job description and person specification.
Dates
 The deadline for applications is 09:00 on Monday 07 December 2015. We will
not accept late applications.

Interviews for this post will take place in Edinburgh on Tuesday 15 and
Wednesday 16 December 2015 (both dates).

The start date is as soon as possible.
Further information:

Please complete the application form electronically.

Your details will be kept on file for six months, after which they will be
confidentially destroyed.

If you require any assistance in completing the application form please contact
recruitment@edfringe.com.
Thank you for your interest in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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