Managing Director in Leeds

TWYD & Co is working with a successful, family-owned hospitality business to appoint a Managing Director. Well-established and highly respected, the business has built a loyal customer following, a strong reputation and an experienced team over many years. Profitable and well-positioned, it now finds itself at an important point in its development. This appointment represents a significant milestone for the business and an opportunity for the successful candidate to play a key role in shaping its future.

Working closely with the shareholders, the Managing Director will build upon what has already been achieved whilst strengthening organisational capability, leadership depth, operational consistency and long-term resilience. This is not a boardroom-only role. The successful candidate will enjoy spending time in the business, with its people and customers, and leading from the front when required.

The business operates seven days a week and the successful candidate must be comfortable leading within an environment where customer demand, operational challenges and commercial opportunities do not always arise during traditional office hours. An appreciation of the pace, complexity and leadership demands associated with hospitality and other service-led operations is therefore essential.

Candidates should be able to travel regularly across multiple locations and be based within reasonable commuting distance of Leeds and the surrounding area. We are interested in speaking with experienced Managing Directors, Operations Directors, Regional Directors and General Managers who have successfully led multi-site, customer-facing businesses.

The successful individual is likely to bring:

• A strong track record of leading multi-site operations.
• Experience of managing seven-day operations and an understanding of the realities of hospitality, including peak trading periods, weekends and customer service pressures.
• Commercial and financial credibility.
• Experience of developing high-performing leadership teams.
• The ability to balance strategic thinking with operational delivery.
• Strong relationship-building skills and emotional intelligence.
• The judgement and maturity required to work effectively with shareholders and other stakeholders.
• A leadership style that combines accountability and commercial rigour with humility, authenticity and respect for culture.
• The ability to create clarity, develop capability and build confidence throughout an organisation.

Experience of working within a family-owned, founder-led or privately-owned business would be highly beneficial, together with an appreciation of the different dynamics that can exist between ownership, governance and management. Whilst hospitality experience would be particularly relevant, we are also interested in hearing from candidates who have led operationally intensive, customer-facing businesses where service standards, people leadership and operational consistency are critical to success.

Within the first two years, success is likely to be measured by the strength of the leadership team, greater organisational resilience, improved operational consistency and increased clarity around accountability and decision-making across the business. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to an established family-owned business, helping to build upon a successful past whilst playing an important role in defining its future.

TWYD & Co is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Selection decisions will be made solely on merit, experience and suitability for the role.