Duncan Wilson OBE
Duncan Wilson is the Chief Executive of the Greenwich Foundation, the charity responsible for running the estate of the Old Royal Naval College and opening the Painted Hall, Chapel, Visitor Centre and grounds to the public. As well as responsibility for the maintenance of one of Europe’s finest and most extensive groups of Baroque buildings, the Foundation manages a programme of public events including most recently an open air ice rink which attracted over 60,000 skaters. There are also plans for a new interpretative and education centre for the whole World Heritage Site, and for the restoration of the historic landscape.
Mr Wilson came to Greenwich in 2002 from the Somerset House Trust, where he led the project to restore the public spaces and open the site to the public from 1997. Successes included the Courtyard, fountains and ice rink, the Admiralty restaurant and the Terrace café and sculpture exhibitions. Before that he was at DCMS as head of Libraries Division for three years, and before that at Treasury, where he worked on the defence and industry desks.
He is a chartered accountant, and his first post-qualification job was as Financial Controller of English Heritage. However, before accountancy he worked as a professional archaeologist, and has a post-graduate degree in European Archaeology from Oxford University.
Duncan Wilson became a Trustee for the Royal Armouries in September 2007.