Matthew Girling has been appointed Global CEO of Bonhams with immediate effect. He was formerly joint CEO of Bonhams with responsibility for Europe and Asia. Following this decision, Patrick Meade, who was based in New York with responsibility for Bonhams US, takes up a new post in Europe as Group Vice Chairman overseeing all Fine Arts departments across Bonhams business.
The company will now appoint a Managing Director for New York. Bonhams Co-Chairman, Robert Brooks stated to the press, “Bonhams is a truly international company and the appointment of a single CEO will enable us to bring more focus to developing our strategy worldwide.”
Matthew Girling added, “I am delighted to have been asked to take on the role of CEO at such an important time in the company’s development. Bonhams has come a long way since I first joined in 1988 and I relish the opportunity to take the company to the next level.”
Girling first joined Bonhams as a jewellery specialist in 1988. After a six year spell at Christie’s as an Associate Director in the jewellery department in London and Geneva, Girling rejoined Bonhams as Head of Jewellery in 1996. Prior to joining the auction house he had been in the jewellery retail sector in a career that had begun in 1977. Girling was appointed Bonhams Chief Executive Officer UK & Europe in October of 1997, he was given a strict brief to raise the company’s business performance, and hence its profile across the UK and Europe.
Girling’s career highlights include valuing and handling the sale of ‘The Jewels from the Personal Collection of Princess Salimah Aga Khan’ which sold for $28 million, or £18 million in 1995. The former joint CEO has also overseen Bonhams taking UK market leadership in jewellery auction sales. Girling is one of Bonhams principal auctioneers, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 2008. He is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and has a BA hons in English Literature from Sussex University.