Harness a unique combination
of art world and proposals industry experience.

Will McPhail spent 14 years of working at the intersection of Sotheby’s Business Development, Marketing and Creative divisions, most recently as Global Head of Proposals. 

Based in London, Will has considerable international experience – managing teams spanning London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong. He has a broad, holistic understanding of the art and luxury market, as well as deep professional expertise and engagement within the bidding industry, including the Association of Proposals Management Professionals (APMP).

Equally comfortable discussing strategy, analytics, creative practices or technology, he is a regular at fairs, talks and conferences – in both the arts and proposals spheres – and has lectured at Sotheby’s Institute of Art on Understanding and Using ‘Art Market’ Data and on Innovation & Diversification in a Changing Marketplace.

14 years at Sotheby’s

1,000+ projects

Past Work

Projects

Over the course of his career at Sotheby’s, Will played a critical role in winning high-value business and promoting the company’s brand and services, having written or directly overseen over 1,000 proposals and presentations in pursuit of:

  • Auction & Private Sale Consignments

  • Client Cultivation

  • Brand Partnerships

  • Corporate Partnerships

  • Creative Collaborations

  • Charitable Initiatives

  • Joint Ventures

Will is adept at digesting complex, varied briefs, managing multiple stakeholders, collaborating with subject matter experts and designers and tailoring pitches to a diverse breath of audiences, including:

  • Lawyers

  • Governments

  • Charities

  • Artists

  • Designers

  • Musicians

  • Chefs

  • Sportspeople

  • Collectors

  • Advisors

  • Museums

  • Dealers

  • Trustees

  • Corporations

  • Wealth
    Managers

Sales Enablement

Will also has considerable experience with innovation and change management in a complex matrix organisation.

He led the creation and enterprise deployment of Sotheby's first global brand templating platform – now established as a core tool for 500+ users spanning 70 teams and 40 locations.

Over the last couple of years he has been carefully following the rapid emergence of generative AI technologies in the proposals and marketing space, and has laid the foundations for integrating genAI into Sotheby’s proposals and marketing workflows.