About John

John Hoy is an unusual combination of farmer’s son, Chartered Surveyor/Land Agent and senior leisure/heritage manager. Heavily involved in the family farm in North Hertfordshire, John qualified as a Chartered Surveyor upon leaving the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester in 1979. Since then John has worked in a variety of stunning locations.

John joined Humberts (Chartered Surveyors) in 1979 and spent 5 years on the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex as the Assistant Resident Land Agent.

In 1984, John moved up to Hertfordshire as the Agent & General Manager for the Knebworth House, Gardens & Park where he enjoyed a successful 13 years overseeing and running every aspect of the Estate – from farming to rock concerts; from forestry to film locations; and from catering to tourism & leisure management.

At the end of 1997, John left Humberts & Knebworth to join The Tussaud’s Group. His first role was at Warwick Castle as Head of Operations (and for a time, Head of Retail) and then John was promoted internally to become General Manager of Madame Tussaud’s London as from March 2000 and this proved to be a hugely rewarding and challenging role over the next two years running this iconic attraction.

John left Tussaud’s at the end of February 2002 and then worked for the National Museums of Science & Industry (Science Museum, London; Railway Museum, York; and Photography Museum, Bradford) in a consultancy capacity driving secondary spend and commercial opportunities through until January 2003.

In January 2003, John was appointed as the first Chief Executive for Blenheim Palace where he assumed responsibility for the overall management and running of this prestigious estate. Huge progress was made in building a strong management team and in driving every aspect of the business.

John left Blenheim at the end of 2016 in order to join Bidwells LLP as an Equity Partner and as Head of the Rural Division. Good progress was made through 2017 in driving profitability and in re-shaping the division as well as integrating the Rural Division more closely with the rest of the business. John decided to move on from Bidwells at the end of April 2018 in order to set up his own consultancy business – Hoy Consultancy – and to more fully immerse himself back into the heritage, leisure and tourism sector.

John has worked in a part time Chief Executive role for the Castle Howard Estate in North Yorkshire from June 2018 to May 2020 and great progress has been made during that time – a new Senior Management Team has been put in place; record visitor numbers, turnover and profit delivered through 2019; new adventure playground project – Skelf Island - delivered on time and on budget and “One Estate One Vision” strategic document published in order to begin to address the significant heritage deficit across the Estate.

Having finished at Castle Howard, John will now focus his time on looking after existing and new clients from across the heritage, leisure and tourism sector.