Catherine Mallyon is Chair of the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust. She was Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, 2012-2023, and now provides sector support through her Arts Leadership consultancy business. Previously Catherine had been Deputy Chief Executive of Southbank Centre, London and, quite some years ago, she worked as an arbitrage trader and credit analyst in the City.
Catherine’s recent Board memberships include Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, West Midlands Combined Authority Cultural Leadership Board, and at the start of its life, the Creative Industries Federation.
Catherine has also served as Chair of the Advisory Boards of both the Bristol + Bath Creative Cluster and the Centre for Cultural Value, based at the University of Leeds.
Catherine is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, University of Oxford, was awarded a CBE in the Queens Platinum Jubilee Birthday Honours list, and holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Warwick. She plays the violin and viola in local orchestras and chamber groups.
Caroline Norbury OBE is the Chief Executive of Creative UK, the independent network for the UK’s Creative Industries working to support and invest in creative talent and businesses, and unite the UK’s creative industries.
Caroline sits on the Creative Industries Council and co-chairs the Investment for Growth sub-group of the Council. She is a non-executive director of Crowdfunder, the UK’s largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform; a member of BAFTA and the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee for the PRS Foundation, a charity supporting new music and talent. Caroline is also Chairwoman of The Music Works, a charity in Gloucestershire changing the lives of young people through music. She was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to the film industry, and has recently been awarded an OBE at The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 for her leadership and advocacy in shaping the creative sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Catherine Mallyon is Chair of the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust. She was Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, 2012-2023, and now provides sector support through her Arts Leadership consultancy business. Previously Catherine had been Deputy Chief Executive of Southbank Centre, London and, quite some years ago, she worked as an arbitrage trader and credit analyst in the City.
Catherine’s recent Board memberships include Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, West Midlands Combined Authority Cultural Leadership Board, and at the start of its life, the Creative Industries Federation.
Catherine has also served as Chair of the Advisory Boards of both the Bristol + Bath Creative Cluster and the Centre for Cultural Value, based at the University of Leeds.
Catherine is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, University of Oxford, was awarded a CBE in the Queens Platinum Jubilee Birthday Honours list, and holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Warwick. She plays the violin and viola in local orchestras and chamber groups.
Caroline Norbury OBE is the Chief Executive of Creative UK, the independent network for the UK’s Creative Industries working to support and invest in creative talent and businesses, and unite the UK’s creative industries.
Caroline sits on the Creative Industries Council and co-chairs the Investment for Growth sub-group of the Council. She is a non-executive director of Crowdfunder, the UK’s largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform; a member of BAFTA and the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee for the PRS Foundation, a charity supporting new music and talent. Caroline is also Chairwoman of The Music Works, a charity in Gloucestershire changing the lives of young people through music. She was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to the film industry, and has recently been awarded an OBE at The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 for her leadership and advocacy in shaping the creative sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mervyn Lyn has been at the coalface of contemporary music for over 35 years, helping break some of the most iconic artists in the world. Mervyn set up his company in 2012 helping brands partner with talent in music, sport and entertainment to amplify their messages. His first clients were MasterCard and he completed successful partnerships around The BRITs, UCL Final, Rugby World Cup and Priceless Surprises comprising their Priceless Gigs series.
Jack is a composer, broadcaster and writer. He is one of the UK’s youngest commissioned composers and the UK’s youngest-ever national radio presenter.
In his teens, Jack composed for the Royal Opera House, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Classic FM, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Band of HM Royal Marines and for the official Canada 150 Celebrations in Trafalgar Square. He has performed everywhere from Wembley Arena to the Roundhouse.
Aged 19, Jack helped plan and launch Bauer Media’s Scala Radio. He now presents on its successor station, Magic Radio’s Magic Classical; past guests include Gary Barlow, Lang Lang, Cameron Mackintosh and Nicola Benedetti. He has also presented specials for Magic at the Musicals and Jazz FM, and hosts the musical theatre show for British Airways and Aer Lingus in-flight entertainment. In 2019, he was named one of the ReelWorld Radio Academy’s 30 Under 30.
Jack writes regularly for Gramophone and Musicals Magazine, is an ambassador for Music For Youth and sits on voting panels for major awards including the BRIT Awards and Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
Vanessa Spence is the Commercial Design and Visual Director at ASOS. Vanessa was instrumental in creating the successful ASOS brand portfolio. Her expertise lies in creating and presenting innovative ideas to contribute to strategic revenue growth and organisational progress.
Mervyn Lyn has been at the coalface of contemporary music for over 35 years, helping break some of the most iconic artists in the world. Mervyn set up his company in 2012 helping brands partner with talent in music, sport and entertainment to amplify their messages. His first clients were MasterCard and he completed successful partnerships around The BRITs, UCL Final, Rugby World Cup and Priceless Surprises comprising their Priceless Gigs series.
Jack is a composer, broadcaster and writer. He is one of the UK’s youngest commissioned composers and the UK’s youngest-ever national radio presenter.
In his teens, Jack composed for the Royal Opera House, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Classic FM, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Band of HM Royal Marines and for the official Canada 150 Celebrations in Trafalgar Square. He has performed everywhere from Wembley Arena to the Roundhouse.
Aged 19, Jack helped plan and launch Bauer Media’s Scala Radio. He now presents on its successor station, Magic Radio’s Magic Classical; past guests include Gary Barlow, Lang Lang, Cameron Mackintosh and Nicola Benedetti. He has also presented specials for Magic at the Musicals and Jazz FM, and hosts the musical theatre show for British Airways and Aer Lingus in-flight entertainment. In 2019, he was named one of the ReelWorld Radio Academy’s 30 Under 30.
Jack writes regularly for Gramophone and Musicals Magazine, is an ambassador for Music For Youth and sits on voting panels for major awards including the BRIT Awards and Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
Vanessa Spence is the Commercial Design and Visual Director at ASOS. Vanessa was instrumental in creating the successful ASOS brand portfolio. Her expertise lies in creating and presenting innovative ideas to contribute to strategic revenue growth and organisational progress.
Professor Steven Spier is Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University. An accomplished academic and leading advocate of the skills for innovation needed to drive economic growth, he originally joined the University in 2012 as Dean of Kingston School of Art. Through his leadership, he enhanced its prominence as one of the top global providers of design and art education.
A driving force in Kingston University’s Future Skills campaign, he is held in high regard for his ground-breaking work championing the need for government, business and educators to work together to ensure graduates are equipped with the skills for innovation needed to invigorate the national economy.
Steven is currently on the council of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is appointed to the Creative Industries Council, and is Chair of Russell Maliphant Dance Company. He was a founding director of the board of Architecture and Design Scotland and was named honorary fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and of German body Bund Deutscher Architekten in recognition of his services to architecture education. He was a long serving board member of Scottish Ballet and also sat on the board of Glasgow-based production house Cryptic.
An expert in contemporary Swiss architecture and in ballet choreography as a form of spatial organisation, Steven is widely published. His academic career encompasses appointments in Switzerland, Germany, Scotland and Northern Ireland. He was founding Vice-Chancellor of the HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany – an institution of the built environment and metropolitan development.
Isaac is a freelance writer, as well as a curator at the arts consultancy Artiq. Prior to this, he studied a BA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, followed by roles at the British Journal of Photography and The Photographers’ Gallery. His words have been featured in the British Journal of Photography, Elephant Magazine, Galerie Peter Sellim, The Photographers’ Gallery, and The South London Gallery. He is particularly interested in documentary ethics, race, gender, class, and the body.
Tari Lang has had an international career advising blue-chip corporations and government leaders. She was CEO of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and Founding Partner of ReputationInc. Her expertise lies in reputation risk, scenario planning and infrastructure development. She has a non-executive portfolio on the boards of several major arts and culture organisations, which has included the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Theatre of Scotland. She currently chairs the board of The Royal Lyceum Theatre and is on the board of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Professor Steven Spier is Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University. An accomplished academic and leading advocate of the skills for innovation needed to drive economic growth, he originally joined the University in 2012 as Dean of Kingston School of Art. Through his leadership, he enhanced its prominence as one of the top global providers of design and art education.
A driving force in Kingston University’s Future Skills campaign, he is held in high regard for his ground-breaking work championing the need for government, business and educators to work together to ensure graduates are equipped with the skills for innovation needed to invigorate the national economy.
Steven is currently on the council of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is appointed to the Creative Industries Council, and is Chair of Russell Maliphant Dance Company. He was a founding director of the board of Architecture and Design Scotland and was named honorary fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and of German body Bund Deutscher Architekten in recognition of his services to architecture education. He was a long serving board member of Scottish Ballet and also sat on the board of Glasgow-based production house Cryptic.
An expert in contemporary Swiss architecture and in ballet choreography as a form of spatial organisation, Steven is widely published. His academic career encompasses appointments in Switzerland, Germany, Scotland and Northern Ireland. He was founding Vice-Chancellor of the HafenCity University in Hamburg, Germany – an institution of the built environment and metropolitan development.
Isaac is a freelance writer, as well as a curator at the arts consultancy Artiq. Prior to this, he studied a BA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, followed by roles at the British Journal of Photography and The Photographers’ Gallery. His words have been featured in the British Journal of Photography, Elephant Magazine, Galerie Peter Sellim, The Photographers’ Gallery, and The South London Gallery. He is particularly interested in documentary ethics, race, gender, class, and the body.
Tari Lang has had an international career advising blue-chip corporations and government leaders. She was CEO of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide and Founding Partner of ReputationInc. Her expertise lies in reputation risk, scenario planning and infrastructure development. She has a non-executive portfolio on the boards of several major arts and culture organisations, which has included the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Theatre of Scotland. She currently chairs the board of The Royal Lyceum Theatre and is on the board of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Janet works with boards and their leadership teams to deliver strategic directives into commercial reality.
By focusing on helping businesses identify sources of value, developing action plans to ensure commercial value is harnessed and embedded into organizational culture ensures creative and profitable growth is achieved.
Business transformation requires a program that reaches across and down the business. Adopting a practical approach typically accelerates buy in, and delivers top and bottom line results. Programs include how you capture, measure and report value internally and externally. Building structured programs as an organization enables a long term commercial culture to be established and success follows.
Having held senior financial, marketing, logistics and commercial roles at Coca-Cola and Sony has enabled Janet to bring the voice of the client, their perspectives on business imperatives and wider business understanding into change programs and solutions Janet helps organizations develop.
Janet joined Grey London as CFO, becoming Chief Commercial Officer across Grey EMEA in 2012. Janet’s leadership was instrumental in driving 9 successive years of double-digit profitable and award winning growth at Grey.
Janet has a true generosity of spirit that nourishes talent. She drives a powerful agenda to broaden commercial understanding across creative businesses, by empowering people to play bigger roles and develop new ways to measure ROMI. In doing this, Janet has driven and enabled both the creativity and commercial performance of a number of Agencies, Production companies and client businesses to grow.
In 2015 Janet was awarded an IPA Fellowship in recognition of her game-changing work and support for the advertising industry.
In 2020 Janet became part time Executive Chairman of The Effectiveness Partnership.
Carl Jones is a senior executive in the global games industry, with over two decades of leadership experience overseeing technology development, business development, game production, marketing and publishing. Carl began his career as a Defence Analyst for the UK Armed Forces, developing strategic insight and analytical skills that have shaped his approach to creative leadership, innovation, and sustainable growth.
Carl has held senior roles at internationally recognised studios, including Cloud Imperium Games, Crytek and Sega, where he led creative and commercial strategies, built global teams, and oversaw the development of pioneering IP and cutting-edge technologies. His work has consistently focused on bridging creativity and technology to deliver world-class entertainment experiences, while driving organisational resilience and long-term value creation.
Carl serves as an advisor to start-ups in AI and video game development, helping emerging founders harness new technologies, build creative pipelines, and position their ventures for growth and investment.
Carl is passionately engaged in advocacy and policy for the UK’s creative industries. He has worked with TIGA and UKIE to advance industry priorities on innovation, skills, and international competitiveness, and has collaborated with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to strengthen the region’s creative and digital economy. An advocate for cross-sector collaboration, Carl champions partnerships between developers, educators, investors, and government to ensure the UK’s creative industries continue to lead on a global stage.
Ida Levine is a Principal with Two Rivers Associates Limited consulting on policy, strategy and governance. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Impact Investing Institute with a focus on policy issues. She also serves as a NED on the Boards of Creative UK and Creative UK Investments.
Ida is a Governor of the Royal Ballet Companies. She also is a Trustee of Dancers Career Development (DCD), and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund, a grant-making charity in the performing arts. Ida is the Honorary Patron of the Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition. She was previously Vice-Chair and a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Dance, and received its President’s Award.
Ida is a member of the Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) and the Advisory Boards of PRIME Finance Foundation, the UCLA Institute for Carbon Management and the UCLA Promise Institute for Human Rights Law.
Previously Ida was Board Director, Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Capital Group/American Funds where she founded the Governance and European Public Policy functions.
Before Capital, Ida was European Counsel for JP Morgan Investment Management. Prior to this, she was a Partner at the international law firm Jones Day (London and New York).
Janet works with boards and their leadership teams to deliver strategic directives into commercial reality.
By focusing on helping businesses identify sources of value, developing action plans to ensure commercial value is harnessed and embedded into organizational culture ensures creative and profitable growth is achieved.
Business transformation requires a program that reaches across and down the business. Adopting a practical approach typically accelerates buy in, and delivers top and bottom line results. Programs include how you capture, measure and report value internally and externally. Building structured programs as an organization enables a long term commercial culture to be established and success follows.
Having held senior financial, marketing, logistics and commercial roles at Coca-Cola and Sony has enabled Janet to bring the voice of the client, their perspectives on business imperatives and wider business understanding into change programs and solutions Janet helps organizations develop.
Janet joined Grey London as CFO, becoming Chief Commercial Officer across Grey EMEA in 2012. Janet’s leadership was instrumental in driving 9 successive years of double-digit profitable and award winning growth at Grey.
Janet has a true generosity of spirit that nourishes talent. She drives a powerful agenda to broaden commercial understanding across creative businesses, by empowering people to play bigger roles and develop new ways to measure ROMI. In doing this, Janet has driven and enabled both the creativity and commercial performance of a number of Agencies, Production companies and client businesses to grow.
In 2015 Janet was awarded an IPA Fellowship in recognition of her game-changing work and support for the advertising industry.
In 2020 Janet became part time Executive Chairman of The Effectiveness Partnership.
Carl Jones is a senior executive in the global games industry, with over two decades of leadership experience overseeing technology development, business development, game production, marketing and publishing. Carl began his career as a Defence Analyst for the UK Armed Forces, developing strategic insight and analytical skills that have shaped his approach to creative leadership, innovation, and sustainable growth.
Carl has held senior roles at internationally recognised studios, including Cloud Imperium Games, Crytek and Sega, where he led creative and commercial strategies, built global teams, and oversaw the development of pioneering IP and cutting-edge technologies. His work has consistently focused on bridging creativity and technology to deliver world-class entertainment experiences, while driving organisational resilience and long-term value creation.
Carl serves as an advisor to start-ups in AI and video game development, helping emerging founders harness new technologies, build creative pipelines, and position their ventures for growth and investment.
Carl is passionately engaged in advocacy and policy for the UK’s creative industries. He has worked with TIGA and UKIE to advance industry priorities on innovation, skills, and international competitiveness, and has collaborated with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to strengthen the region’s creative and digital economy. An advocate for cross-sector collaboration, Carl champions partnerships between developers, educators, investors, and government to ensure the UK’s creative industries continue to lead on a global stage.
Ida Levine is a Principal with Two Rivers Associates Limited consulting on policy, strategy and governance. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Impact Investing Institute with a focus on policy issues. She also serves as a NED on the Boards of Creative UK and Creative UK Investments.
Ida is a Governor of the Royal Ballet Companies. She also is a Trustee of Dancers Career Development (DCD), and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund, a grant-making charity in the performing arts. Ida is the Honorary Patron of the Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition. She was previously Vice-Chair and a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Dance, and received its President’s Award.
Ida is a member of the Financial Markets Law Committee (FMLC) and the Advisory Boards of PRIME Finance Foundation, the UCLA Institute for Carbon Management and the UCLA Promise Institute for Human Rights Law.
Previously Ida was Board Director, Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Capital Group/American Funds where she founded the Governance and European Public Policy functions.
Before Capital, Ida was European Counsel for JP Morgan Investment Management. Prior to this, she was a Partner at the international law firm Jones Day (London and New York).
Gideon Spanier is an award-winning business journalist, speaker and event organiser with a focus on the creative industries. He joined the advertising magazine, Campaign, in 2015 after previously working for the London Evening Standard, The Times and CNN. He is an executive committee member of the Broadcasting Press Guild and is passionate about the power of creativity.
Dr Paul Thompson is a leading authority on art and design having worked at the intersection of culture and education for three decades. Throughout his leadership of three international institutions – the Royal College of Art, the National Design Museum in New York, and the UK’s Design Museum – he has championed the best of design and fostered a positive environment for artists and innovators to flourish.
Dr Thompson has been Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, the internationally renowned art and design postgraduate university, since 2009. He has instigated strategic shifts in the academic vision of the institution, most notably, introducing scientific members of faculty (in computer science, materials science, and robotics) alongside the ‘traditional’ craft-based practitioners in glass, ceramic, print and painting.
Prior to the RCA, Dr Thompson was Director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York (2001–9). Here, he expanded nationwide education services, instigated the ‘Design for the Other 90%’ research programme, and appointed the world’s first museum curator of socially responsible design.
Dr Thompson is a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum; Board Member of Universities UK and Chair of Universities UK’s Specialists Institutions Forum; Chair of the Creative UK Creative Education & Careers Working Group; Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London; Executive Committee Member of SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities & the Arts for People and the Economy); and served on the Ashmolean Museum’s governing body at the University of Oxford from 2012-2018.
Dr Steve Perry, an economist with extensive experience in payments technology and data analytics, has advised numerous disruptive start-ups and emerging businesses. His career at Visa Europe spanned 25 years, during which he held positions as chief financial officer, chief commercial officer and later chief digital officer. He played a key role in the widespread adoption of new payment technologies across Europe and the UK, including contactless payments, digital wallets and e-commerce. For over a decade, he has also advised NASDAQ-listed technology businesses.
A significant achievement of Steve’s was his role in transforming the Visa payment network to enable him to make the world’s first euro transaction, by using a Visa card a year before the euro became a physical currency.
In recognition of his efforts to eliminate cash payments in Italy, Steve received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy in 1998. This prestigious honour is known as the Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Republica Italiana. Steve is also the chair of the Creative UK Investment Company board.
Gideon Spanier is an award-winning business journalist, speaker and event organiser with a focus on the creative industries. He joined the advertising magazine, Campaign, in 2015 after previously working for the London Evening Standard, The Times and CNN. He is an executive committee member of the Broadcasting Press Guild and is passionate about the power of creativity.
Dr Paul Thompson is a leading authority on art and design having worked at the intersection of culture and education for three decades. Throughout his leadership of three international institutions – the Royal College of Art, the National Design Museum in New York, and the UK’s Design Museum – he has championed the best of design and fostered a positive environment for artists and innovators to flourish.
Dr Thompson has been Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, the internationally renowned art and design postgraduate university, since 2009. He has instigated strategic shifts in the academic vision of the institution, most notably, introducing scientific members of faculty (in computer science, materials science, and robotics) alongside the ‘traditional’ craft-based practitioners in glass, ceramic, print and painting.
Prior to the RCA, Dr Thompson was Director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York (2001–9). Here, he expanded nationwide education services, instigated the ‘Design for the Other 90%’ research programme, and appointed the world’s first museum curator of socially responsible design.
Dr Thompson is a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum; Board Member of Universities UK and Chair of Universities UK’s Specialists Institutions Forum; Chair of the Creative UK Creative Education & Careers Working Group; Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London; Executive Committee Member of SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities & the Arts for People and the Economy); and served on the Ashmolean Museum’s governing body at the University of Oxford from 2012-2018.
Dr Steve Perry, an economist with extensive experience in payments technology and data analytics, has advised numerous disruptive start-ups and emerging businesses. His career at Visa Europe spanned 25 years, during which he held positions as chief financial officer, chief commercial officer and later chief digital officer. He played a key role in the widespread adoption of new payment technologies across Europe and the UK, including contactless payments, digital wallets and e-commerce. For over a decade, he has also advised NASDAQ-listed technology businesses.
A significant achievement of Steve’s was his role in transforming the Visa payment network to enable him to make the world’s first euro transaction, by using a Visa card a year before the euro became a physical currency.
In recognition of his efforts to eliminate cash payments in Italy, Steve received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy in 1998. This prestigious honour is known as the Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Republica Italiana. Steve is also the chair of the Creative UK Investment Company board.