New face for Olympia fairs

Freya Simms, 34, has been involved in the art world for the past 10 years when she worked as head of marketing and press at Sotheby’s Olympia, PR at Bonhams and press officer at Christie’s.

She has also had direct experience of working at Olympia, firstly nine years ago when she worked for the public relations firm Cawdell Douglas, who then had the Olympia account, and for the past two years she has handled the Summer Olympia fair account for Focus PR, where she was associate director.

The new director joined the Olympia team earlier this week to work alongside executive director Dan Gorton, with the intention of assuming responsibility for the day to day management of all three Olympia fairs in due course.

Mr Gorton told ATG: “We have spent over six months searching for the right person to take on this position and I am delighted to welcome Freya to the team. Alongside her management expertise, she has an in-depth understanding of the Olympia fairs, their unique characteristics and importance to the trade. She is well liked and respected in the trade and I have full confidence in her ability to drive the fairs forward.”

Miss Simms joins Clarion Events at a time of flux and evolution for Olympia’s art and antiques fairs. Clarion successfully completed a management buy-out from Earls Court & Olympia early this year and they have a new strategy to develop their flagship summer fair into a major international event. As reported in February, Clarion plan to cut the number of stands at the fair by almost half by the end of the decade and perhaps introduce other luxury goods alongside art and antiques.

Dan Gorton will continue to retain overall strategic responsibility “for the foreseeable future” but he is actively looking for another position within Clarion, where he is part of the buy-out team.

It is thought Mr Gorton’s inclinations are to move on sooner rather than later, which might put the new director on a rather rapid learning curve.