United Kingdom
John Newbigin
Creative England, Founder and first Chairman; Goldsmiths University, Visiting Fellow, London
As Special Advisor to the Minister for Culture, Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, he was closely involved in developing the UK government's first policies for the creative industries. He was Head of Corporate Relations for Channel 4 Television and executive assistant to Lord Puttnam as the Chairman of the film company Enigma Productions Ltd.He is a member of the UK government's Creative Industries Council; Chairman of the British Council's Advisory Group for Arts and Creative Economy; member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London; and of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Knowledge Exchange Oversight Group.
John Peto
Nerve Centre, Director of Education, Derry / Londonderry
John is the Director of Education at the Nerve Centre, responsible for a range of projects that support digital creativity in schools and communities across Northern Ireland. From a background in film and television production John has overseen the establishment of Northern Ireland’s first Fablab’s, as well as operating large scale teacher and student education programmes through the Nerve Centre’s Creative Learning Centres, and pioneering the use of digital creative media in conflict education through the Teaching Divided Histories Project. John currently leads conflict & human rights education projects in Lebanon & Iraq as well as working across Ireland and the UK.
Kate Stewart
Social Enterprise We Make Places, CEO, Liverpool
Her community engagement role sees her designing and running participative processes to give a voice to the unheard, using culture, conversations and design to challenge perspectives on place. Having started life as a theatre producer and director over 30 years ago, then moved into the world of architecture and interiors, Kate still works as a freelance Creative Producer, her most recent project being the Punk! exhibition at Liverpool Central Library. Over the last 30 years Kate has won various business accolades, and was recently named in the WISE100 list recognising Women in Social Enterprise. She is proud to also be one of 15 individuals selected to be part of the Creative Producers International programme which has seen her running placemaking events in Tokyo, South Africa, Stratford Upon Avon and Dublin.
Leonora Thomson
Welsh National Opera, outgoing CEO, Cardiff
Leo is currently Interim Chief Executive of Anthem, the new Music Fund for Wales and Interim Joint Chief Executive of National Theatre Wales.
From 2015 - 2019 she was Managing Director of Welsh National Opera, Wale’s leading performing arts company, which tours across Wales, the UK and internationally. For seven years prior to that she worked at the Barbican Centre as Director of Audiences and Development.
She joined the Barbican from the Metropolitan Police Service and in her earlier career she worked in communications for the BBC and EMI Classics. Leo has also been a local politician in Ealing, West London where she led on education and children’s services, later becoming Deputy Leader and Council Leader.
Martin Smith
The Ingenious Group, Special Adviser, London
Adviser and spokesman at Ingenious, a British investment business specialising in the media, energy and property sectors and best known for its investments in UK film and TV drama having invested more than £8 billion in creative assets since 1998. He advises Ingenious on government relations and corporate PR and speaks for the company in media industry forums on policy and investment topics. He also works with Ingenious founder Patrick McKenna on a portfolio of philanthropic, arts, social investment and education projects. Through his own company, West Bridge Consulting, which focuses on cultural industries’ investment issues, he works in an advisory role with a small number of national and international clients. He has worked with the British Council in a pro bono capacity for more than ten years.
Mel Larsen
Mel Larsen & Associates, founder, London
Mel Larsen has worked in audience development in the arts for over 30 years. She helps organisations and individuals to get clear about their big vision and then turn that inspiration into strategies that get measurable results. Mel has delivered her training, public speaking and consulting work in many parts of the world including Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and South Africa. She is author of 'A Guide to working with Arts Ambassadors’ published by Arts Council England, co-author of 'Open Up: museums for everyone’ and founder of several successful community-led festivals in south London including the Streatham Festival for which she received a Lambeth Civic Award.
Nana Yu-I Lee
Evaluation consultant for British Council, London
With 8 years of stakeholder engagement experience in both agency and in-house senior management positions, Nana Lee has led high-profile campaigns for government and corporate clients including West Kowloon Cultural Districts Authority, UBS, PACE, MCH group, Singapore Biennale and Fine Art Asia. She is equipped with a wealth of experience in research, communications and media relationship management. Before relocating to London, Nana worked as Senior Account Director at Sutton PR, Hong Kong office. Prior to Sutton, she was the media spokesperson and Section Chief of Communications and Public Relations for Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, during which time she oversaw campaigns for the Taipei Biennial and for Taiwan’s representation at the Venice Biennale.
Rachel Ireland
British Council in Uzbekistan, Director, Tashkent
Rachel has worked for the British Council for over 12 years in a range of roles. Prior to her current role, Rachel was the policy lead for Asia based in London, providing strategic leadership to the British Council’s overseas network of offices across Asia. She has held a number of regional Programmes Director roles where she led the British Council’s portfolio of work covering education, skills, English and the arts. Rachel has a Master’s in International Development and Education and in Ethnomusicology. Before joining the British Council she worked in the UK’s music education sector, developing policy and programmes to enable quality music making opportunities for young people across the country. She studied Music at Durham University where she played flute in a woodwind trio and a ceilidh band.
