The British Motor Museum is delighted to announce that Jeff Coope has been appointed
Managing Director following the retirement of Julie Tew. Julie took planned retirement in
April 2020 after 19 years of dedicated and successful service.
Julie Tew joined the organisation in 2001 and was responsible for developing and
delivering a sustainable business model to support the charitable aims of the Trust
ensuring the nationally important collections were preserved for the benefit of the nation.
She led the achievement of financial viability whilst developing the Museum into an
award winning, highly regarded organisation now recognised as a benchmark by its
peers, Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.
Jeff Coope was previously Director of Operations at the British Motor Museum where he
has worked since 2002. Jeff has been part of the senior management team responsible
for building a stable financial platform for the Museum. He has recently negotiated a long
lease on the venue which has provided the opportunity to build a hotel on site and a
second Museum Collections building. He also led the venues recent conference
refurbishment and building of the Museum’s original Collection Centre that opened in
2016.
Jeff started his career as an engineering apprentice and has previously worked for
Lockheed, British Aerospace, Honda, BMW and Ford. In 1997 he moved from product
development to estate management, managing Jaguar Land Rover’s 900 acre Gaydon
research and development site for five years, before joining the British Motor Museum in
2002. Out of work Jeff has a passion for engineering. He owns a MGTF LE500 and two motorcycles - a Triumph Café Racer and a Triumph Scrambler, which he has ridden across Europe. He is also a qualified Yacht Master.
Jeff Coope, Managing Director at the British Motor Museum stated “I am delighted to
have been appointed Managing Director and look forward to moving the Trust and the
British Motor Museum to a new level, despite these trying and unprecedented times. With
new Trustees and management structure we can look to new horizons, to become a museum for all British manufacturers and open up to a much broader automotive history.
I plan to increase our appeal to visitors, enthusiasts and institutions and by doing so,
develop the Museum into one of the world’s outstanding motor museums and the focal
point of British automotive history”.