Meet our CEO & board

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Belinda BudgeChair

Belinda Budge is a textile maker and designer.

For over 30 years, Belinda was a luminary of the book publishing industry.  As Group Publisher and Main Board Director at HarperCollins, she provided creative, strategic, commercial and operational leadership to the worldwide business.  She worked with many talented authors and honed her love of storytelling. Her vision and passion for building businesses, creative cultures and innovating made her a respected voice within publishing.  In response to the then existential threat to her industry of digital and self-publishing, Belinda focused on putting innovation at the heart of the business by re-imagining the relationships between writer, publisher, retailer and audience.  As a feminist and activist, she was always drawn to the publishing industry as a platform for expression, and in the 80s worked for both Virago and The Women’s Press.  At the beginning of the 90s, she was a Founder of the start-up publishing company, Scarlet Press. Issue-oriented, provocative and feminist, Scarlet Press was described by Time Out as ‘a welcome new ray of light over feminist publishing’. Belinda was approached by HarperCollins to run the feminist imprint Pandora Press in 1993.

In 2014, Belinda left HarperCollins, working as a transformational change consultant, whilst pursuing her own creative journey. After spending a year at Central St Martins Art School, she graduated with a two-year MA in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2019. In 2022, she made a much-praised film, Walnut Ink Markings, about her work. She went on to set up StudioBudgeBudge, a working design studio, and a recent commission includes fabrics for a young fashion designer’s first show.

Belinda continues to be a mentor focusing on creativity, strategy and leadership.

Belinda joined the Board of Creative England as a non-executive director in 2014 and was Chair from 2017-2020. Following the integration of the Creative Industries Federation with Creative England, Belinda was Vice Chair of the newly formed Creative UK. She took over as Chair of Creative UK in Autumn 2022.

She is Co-Founder of The MultiKids Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, based in Accra, Ghana, which supports children with special needs to access high-quality education and achieve their potential.

Caroline Norbury OBEChief Executive

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 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.

Belinda Budge is a textile maker and designer.

For over 30 years, Belinda was a luminary of the book publishing industry.  As Group Publisher and Main Board Director at HarperCollins, she provided creative, strategic, commercial and operational leadership to the worldwide business.  She worked with many talented authors and honed her love of storytelling. Her vision and passion for building businesses, creative cultures and innovating made her a respected voice within publishing.  In response to the then existential threat to her industry of digital and self-publishing, Belinda focused on putting innovation at the heart of the business by re-imagining the relationships between writer, publisher, retailer and audience.  As a feminist and activist, she was always drawn to the publishing industry as a platform for expression, and in the 80s worked for both Virago and The Women’s Press.  At the beginning of the 90s, she was a Founder of the start-up publishing company, Scarlet Press. Issue-oriented, provocative and feminist, Scarlet Press was described by Time Out as ‘a welcome new ray of light over feminist publishing’. Belinda was approached by HarperCollins to run the feminist imprint Pandora Press in 1993.

In 2014, Belinda left HarperCollins, working as a transformational change consultant, whilst pursuing her own creative journey. After spending a year at Central St Martins Art School, she graduated with a two-year MA in Textiles at the Royal College of Art in 2019. In 2022, she made a much-praised film, Walnut Ink Markings, about her work. She went on to set up StudioBudgeBudge, a working design studio, and a recent commission includes fabrics for a young fashion designer’s first show.

Belinda continues to be a mentor focusing on creativity, strategy and leadership.

Belinda joined the Board of Creative England as a non-executive director in 2014 and was Chair from 2017-2020. Following the integration of the Creative Industries Federation with Creative England, Belinda was Vice Chair of the newly formed Creative UK. She took over as Chair of Creative UK in Autumn 2022.

She is Co-Founder of The MultiKids Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, based in Accra, Ghana, which supports children with special needs to access high-quality education and achieve their potential.

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 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.

Mya-Rose CraigOrnithologist & Environmental Activist

Mya-Rose Craig, who blogs as Birdgirl, is a 19-year-old British-Bangladesh birder, naturalist, conservationist and environmentalist, passionate about birds and nature, she has been birding forever, obtained BTO ringing licence when she turned 16 and at 17 became the youngest person to see half the birds of the world. She feels strongly about campaigning to save nature, stop biodiversity loss, climate breakdown, ensure Global Climate Justice which she believes are closely inter-linked as well as the need to prioritise the human rights of indigenous peoples. In her book, We have a Dream, she highlights the work of 30 fantastic young environmentalists of colour from around the planet with the aim of using her book to amplify their voices.

In February 2020, she became the youngest Briton to be awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science for her five years campaigning with my organisation Black2Nature, leading the fight for equal access to the natural environment for Visible Minority Ethnic people, organising teenage and children’s nature camps and high profile conferences, Race Equality Nature and campaigning to make the sector ethnically diverse.

Mya was a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador and in 2014 was listed with George Ezra as one of Bristol’s most influential young people. She is involved with Youth Strikes and shared a stage speaking with Greta Thunberg in front of 40,000 people, is involved with Youth for our Planet working to stop species loss and have attended lots of meetings at Downing Street and Parliament. She has written articles including The Times, Guardian, Observer, New Statesman and Resurgence & Ecologist.

Danny PerkinsFounder, Elysian Film Group

Danny started his career as Marketing Executive at the Feature Film Company in 1996. He then joined Optimum Releasing (now STUDIOCANAL) at the inception of the company in May 1999, taking on responsibility for the positioning and promotion of all titles. As the new company developed and grew through its acquisition by STUDIOCANAL in 2006, his role was extended to include management and development of the company, and he was named CEO on September 1st 2010 with a responsibility across Production and Distribution. He has overseen the release of over several hundred titles theatrically and more than a thousand titles in Home Entertainment, including critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles, such as ‘FAHRENHEIT 9/11’, ‘THE HURT LOCKER’, ‘THIS IS ENGLAND’ and ‘RUSH’, as well as an impressive slate of productions including Tomas Alfredson’s ‘TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY’, Jaume Collet Serra’s ‘NON-STOP’ and Paul King’s ‘PADDINGTON’. Danny has lectured at both the National Film and Television School and the BFI, and has represented the company at events at the London School of Economics, London Film Festival and the BritDoc festival among others.

Vanessa SpenceDesign & Visual Director, ASOS

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.

Mya-Rose Craig, who blogs as Birdgirl, is a 19-year-old British-Bangladesh birder, naturalist, conservationist and environmentalist, passionate about birds and nature, she has been birding forever, obtained BTO ringing licence when she turned 16 and at 17 became the youngest person to see half the birds of the world. She feels strongly about campaigning to save nature, stop biodiversity loss, climate breakdown, ensure Global Climate Justice which she believes are closely inter-linked as well as the need to prioritise the human rights of indigenous peoples. In her book, We have a Dream, she highlights the work of 30 fantastic young environmentalists of colour from around the planet with the aim of using her book to amplify their voices.

In February 2020, she became the youngest Briton to be awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science for her five years campaigning with my organisation Black2Nature, leading the fight for equal access to the natural environment for Visible Minority Ethnic people, organising teenage and children’s nature camps and high profile conferences, Race Equality Nature and campaigning to make the sector ethnically diverse.

Mya was a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador and in 2014 was listed with George Ezra as one of Bristol’s most influential young people. She is involved with Youth Strikes and shared a stage speaking with Greta Thunberg in front of 40,000 people, is involved with Youth for our Planet working to stop species loss and have attended lots of meetings at Downing Street and Parliament. She has written articles including The Times, Guardian, Observer, New Statesman and Resurgence & Ecologist.

Danny started his career as Marketing Executive at the Feature Film Company in 1996. He then joined Optimum Releasing (now STUDIOCANAL) at the inception of the company in May 1999, taking on responsibility for the positioning and promotion of all titles. As the new company developed and grew through its acquisition by STUDIOCANAL in 2006, his role was extended to include management and development of the company, and he was named CEO on September 1st 2010 with a responsibility across Production and Distribution. He has overseen the release of over several hundred titles theatrically and more than a thousand titles in Home Entertainment, including critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles, such as ‘FAHRENHEIT 9/11’, ‘THE HURT LOCKER’, ‘THIS IS ENGLAND’ and ‘RUSH’, as well as an impressive slate of productions including Tomas Alfredson’s ‘TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY’, Jaume Collet Serra’s ‘NON-STOP’ and Paul King’s ‘PADDINGTON’. Danny has lectured at both the National Film and Television School and the BFI, and has represented the company at events at the London School of Economics, London Film Festival and the BritDoc festival among others.

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.

Karen Blackett OBEWPP UK.Country Manager & GroupM UK CEO

Karen began her media career in 1993 at CIA MediaNetwork (now known as Wavemaker), working across a range of direct response accounts as a specialist direct response planner and buyer. Karen continued her career by joining Zenith Media in 1995 as a Senior Communications Planner, working on the prestigious BT account. Karen was quickly head-hunted by The Media Business Group to take up the role of Media Manager.

In October 1999, Karen was promoted to the Board of Directors of the newly merged MediaCom and The Media Business Group Board. In January 2003, Karen moved from the Business Director role that she had held for so long to become the Marketing Director of MediaCom.

In 2008, Karen became MediaCom’s Chief Operations Officer for EMEA. After 3 years strengthening the EMEA network, during which time MediaCom moved from the 5th to 3rd largest EMEA network media agency, Karen was promoted to CEO of the UK Office in January 2011, running over £1.3bn of media billings and over 1,200 people in 5 UK locations.

In January 2016, after serving as CEO for 5 years, Karen was promoted to Chairwoman of MediaCom UK & Ireland and is closely linked with clients such as Tesco, Coca-Cola and Sky.  As of January 2018, Karen took on a newly created role as the first UK Country Manager for WPP, the world’s largest communications network, overseeing 11,000 people across a number of well-known operating brands such as Ogilvy, Grey, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson. In this role Karen is responsible for delivering growth in WPP’s 2nd largest market, with revenue of $2 billion.

In 2019 Karen was appointed a Non-Executive Director of the UK Cabinet Office. Karen was appointed as CEO of GroupM U.K, the world’s leading media investment company, in April 2020 – an additional role to her WPP UK Country Manager responsibilities. In November 2020, Karen featured in one of the Top 100 Great Black Britons.

Sir Ian Livingstone CBEChair, Sumo Group

Ian is Chairman of Sumo Group plc and co-founding Partner of Hiro Capital, a VC fund investing in video games studios. Acknowledged as a founding father of the UK games industry, he co-founded Games Workshop in 1975, launching Dungeons & Dragons in Europe, Warhammer, White Dwarf, Citadel Miniatures and the Games Workshop retail chain before embarking on a very successful career in the video games industry.

He co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson in 1982, the first gamebook in the Fighting Fantasy series which has sold 20 million copies worldwide. He has written 15 books in the series including Deathtrap Dungeon and City of Thieves. Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are known to improve children’s critical thinking and literacy levels.

In 1995, he co-led the merger that created Eidos plc where he served as Executive Chairman, launching blockbuster titles Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Hitman. In 2012, he began angel investing in indie games studios including Golf Clash developers, Playdemic where he served as Chairman, and Fall Guys developers, Mediatonic.

He is a leading advocate for ‘the power of play’ and digital creativity. In 2011, he co-authored the Livingstone-Hope Next Gen review published by NESTA, recommending changes in ICT education policy to include computer science in the national curriculum. He is opening The Livingstone Academy Bournemouth in September 2021 in association with Aspirations Academies Trust.

Irene Graham OBECEO, Scale Up Institute

Irene is the founding CEO and board director of the ScaleUp Institute. A former senior  banker at Standard Chartered Bank where she held European and global managing director roles, she set up, and scaled several of the bank’s key client and product businesses across its corporate and institutional bank and led several global M&A activities.

Before joining the ScaleUp Institute, she was Managing Director at the UK’s banking industry association heading up a range of strategic industry activity across the regulatory, business and international arena. This included leading the industry in the establishment of the Business Growth Fund (BGF) and Open Banking.

Irene sits on various advisory boards and is a visiting professor at Strathclyde University. She was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to business and the economy.

Karen began her media career in 1993 at CIA MediaNetwork (now known as Wavemaker), working across a range of direct response accounts as a specialist direct response planner and buyer. Karen continued her career by joining Zenith Media in 1995 as a Senior Communications Planner, working on the prestigious BT account. Karen was quickly head-hunted by The Media Business Group to take up the role of Media Manager.

In October 1999, Karen was promoted to the Board of Directors of the newly merged MediaCom and The Media Business Group Board. In January 2003, Karen moved from the Business Director role that she had held for so long to become the Marketing Director of MediaCom.

In 2008, Karen became MediaCom’s Chief Operations Officer for EMEA. After 3 years strengthening the EMEA network, during which time MediaCom moved from the 5th to 3rd largest EMEA network media agency, Karen was promoted to CEO of the UK Office in January 2011, running over £1.3bn of media billings and over 1,200 people in 5 UK locations.

In January 2016, after serving as CEO for 5 years, Karen was promoted to Chairwoman of MediaCom UK & Ireland and is closely linked with clients such as Tesco, Coca-Cola and Sky.  As of January 2018, Karen took on a newly created role as the first UK Country Manager for WPP, the world’s largest communications network, overseeing 11,000 people across a number of well-known operating brands such as Ogilvy, Grey, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson. In this role Karen is responsible for delivering growth in WPP’s 2nd largest market, with revenue of $2 billion.

In 2019 Karen was appointed a Non-Executive Director of the UK Cabinet Office. Karen was appointed as CEO of GroupM U.K, the world’s leading media investment company, in April 2020 – an additional role to her WPP UK Country Manager responsibilities. In November 2020, Karen featured in one of the Top 100 Great Black Britons.

Ian is Chairman of Sumo Group plc and co-founding Partner of Hiro Capital, a VC fund investing in video games studios. Acknowledged as a founding father of the UK games industry, he co-founded Games Workshop in 1975, launching Dungeons & Dragons in Europe, Warhammer, White Dwarf, Citadel Miniatures and the Games Workshop retail chain before embarking on a very successful career in the video games industry.

He co-authored The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson in 1982, the first gamebook in the Fighting Fantasy series which has sold 20 million copies worldwide. He has written 15 books in the series including Deathtrap Dungeon and City of Thieves. Fighting Fantasy gamebooks are known to improve children’s critical thinking and literacy levels.

In 1995, he co-led the merger that created Eidos plc where he served as Executive Chairman, launching blockbuster titles Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Hitman. In 2012, he began angel investing in indie games studios including Golf Clash developers, Playdemic where he served as Chairman, and Fall Guys developers, Mediatonic.

He is a leading advocate for ‘the power of play’ and digital creativity. In 2011, he co-authored the Livingstone-Hope Next Gen review published by NESTA, recommending changes in ICT education policy to include computer science in the national curriculum. He is opening The Livingstone Academy Bournemouth in September 2021 in association with Aspirations Academies Trust.

Irene is the founding CEO and board director of the ScaleUp Institute. A former senior  banker at Standard Chartered Bank where she held European and global managing director roles, she set up, and scaled several of the bank’s key client and product businesses across its corporate and institutional bank and led several global M&A activities.

Before joining the ScaleUp Institute, she was Managing Director at the UK’s banking industry association heading up a range of strategic industry activity across the regulatory, business and international arena. This included leading the industry in the establishment of the Business Growth Fund (BGF) and Open Banking.

Irene sits on various advisory boards and is a visiting professor at Strathclyde University. She was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to business and the economy.

Pardeep DuggalDigital Transformation Leader

Pardeep Duggal is a digital and transformation leader with experience across the energy, finance and banking and retail sectors. She loves to work in companies and sectors willing to build digital capacity to transform customer experience. Pardeep has extensive expertise in strategy, planning, marketing, brand development and online customer service.

One of very few BAME female leaders in the digital space, Pardeep led  E.ON‘s customer transformation, joining in 2011 to build capability as part of the marketing leadership team and co-create a digitisation strategy with E.ON’s CEO.

Over five years Pardeep secured investment of more than £25m and drove savings of £36m. She transformed E.ON’s UK digital team from the smallest in marketing by size and budget, growing it to the largest with 60 colleagues. Pardeep’s legacy at E.ON is the UK business led E.ON’s digital capability globally, with online visitor numbers trebling to over 32m, making digital its primary service channel. Pardeep has a BSc in Business Management from Bradford University Business School – during which she won a scholarship from Bradford & Bingley Building Society – followed by an MSc in Marketing Management from Aston University.    Pardeep has broad non executive experience. She currently serves on the Post Office Advisory Council, and previously served on the Board of Go ON UK, a digital inclusion charity chaired by Baroness (Martha) Lane-Fox.

Paul ThompsonVice Chancellor of the Royal College of Art

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.

Neil RamiCEO, West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC)

Neil oversees the  West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), formerly Marketing Birmingham, which was established in April 2017 to create new jobs, expand existing businesses and attract new investment and visitors to the region, aligned to the ambitions set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Strategic Economic Plan.   Under Neil’s leadership of Marketing Birmingham, the city secured the highest number of foreign direct investment projects on record, attracting significant new investments from companies such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Jaguar Land Rover and ASOS. The city’s visitor economy has also grown significantly in recent years, with Birmingham enjoying the largest growth in international visitors of any UK city outside London and the tourism sector now contributing £6.5 billion to the local economy, a 22% increase (£1.16bn) since 2013.   Previously, Neil held similar roles in Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a member of the British Tourism Industry Group; Chair of the Midlands Trade and Investment Group and is a former Governor and Board Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Pardeep Duggal is a digital and transformation leader with experience across the energy, finance and banking and retail sectors. She loves to work in companies and sectors willing to build digital capacity to transform customer experience. Pardeep has extensive expertise in strategy, planning, marketing, brand development and online customer service.

One of very few BAME female leaders in the digital space, Pardeep led  E.ON‘s customer transformation, joining in 2011 to build capability as part of the marketing leadership team and co-create a digitisation strategy with E.ON’s CEO.

Over five years Pardeep secured investment of more than £25m and drove savings of £36m. She transformed E.ON’s UK digital team from the smallest in marketing by size and budget, growing it to the largest with 60 colleagues. Pardeep’s legacy at E.ON is the UK business led E.ON’s digital capability globally, with online visitor numbers trebling to over 32m, making digital its primary service channel. Pardeep has a BSc in Business Management from Bradford University Business School – during which she won a scholarship from Bradford & Bingley Building Society – followed by an MSc in Marketing Management from Aston University.    Pardeep has broad non executive experience. She currently serves on the Post Office Advisory Council, and previously served on the Board of Go ON UK, a digital inclusion charity chaired by Baroness (Martha) Lane-Fox.

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.

Neil oversees the  West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), formerly Marketing Birmingham, which was established in April 2017 to create new jobs, expand existing businesses and attract new investment and visitors to the region, aligned to the ambitions set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Strategic Economic Plan.   Under Neil’s leadership of Marketing Birmingham, the city secured the highest number of foreign direct investment projects on record, attracting significant new investments from companies such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Jaguar Land Rover and ASOS. The city’s visitor economy has also grown significantly in recent years, with Birmingham enjoying the largest growth in international visitors of any UK city outside London and the tourism sector now contributing £6.5 billion to the local economy, a 22% increase (£1.16bn) since 2013.   Previously, Neil held similar roles in Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a member of the British Tourism Industry Group; Chair of the Midlands Trade and Investment Group and is a former Governor and Board Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Jude Kelly CBEFounder, Women of the World

Jude Kelly is the founder of WOW Foundation – Women of the World Festival to celebrate the achievements of Women and Girls. Starting at the Southbank Centre London in 2010 the Festival now takes place in 25 countries across 5 continents. In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4.

Jude is the recipient two Olivier awards, a BASCA Gold Badge Award winner for contribution to music, a Southbank Award for her opera work, Red Magazine’s 2014 Creative Woman of the Year, CBIs 2016 First Woman Award winner for Tourism and Leisure and in 2017 won the inaugural Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year Social Purpose Award. Kelly’s talk at a 2016 TED conference, Why women should tell the stories of humanity, has been viewed more than 1.2 million times as of July 2019. She has founded a range of arts institutions including the international artists space METAL. In September 2018, to mark Time Out magazine’s 50th anniversary, she was one of 50 people featured as helping to shape London’s cultural landscape and “make the city awesome”.

On the international stage, she has recently been honoured by the Finnish government in 2019 for her work with women and girls as well as being made a Knight of Denmark in 2018. She has also Chaired the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Before founding the WOW Foundation Jude was the Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre in London for 12 years. Southbank Centre is Europe’s largest Arts Institution and London’s 3rd biggest tourist attraction. In 1997, she was awarded an OBE for her services to theatre and in 2015 she was made a CBE for services to the Arts.

Hannah ChukwuAssistant Editor, Penguin Random House UK

Hannah Chukwu is an award-winning Editor at Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House UK, where she works on literary fiction and non-fiction, working with authors such as Bernardine Evaristo, Zadie Smith and Arundhati Roy. She is an editor for Five Dials magazine, and the series editor for Black Britain: Writing Back. She is also Policy and Campaigns Consultant for the campaign ‘Lit in Colour’; run by PRH and the Runnymede Trust, the campaign aims to diversify the English GCSE curriculum. She co-founded the theatre production company Chucked Up Theatre in 2016, is a Trustee at education equality charity The Brilliant Club and a Board Member of Creative UK. In 2021 she won the LBF Trailblazer Award, the Rising Star Award in Arts and Media at the Black British Business Awards, and she was named on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Future Leader list.

Jude Kelly is the founder of WOW Foundation – Women of the World Festival to celebrate the achievements of Women and Girls. Starting at the Southbank Centre London in 2010 the Festival now takes place in 25 countries across 5 continents. In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4.

Jude is the recipient two Olivier awards, a BASCA Gold Badge Award winner for contribution to music, a Southbank Award for her opera work, Red Magazine’s 2014 Creative Woman of the Year, CBIs 2016 First Woman Award winner for Tourism and Leisure and in 2017 won the inaugural Veuve Clicquot Woman of the Year Social Purpose Award. Kelly’s talk at a 2016 TED conference, Why women should tell the stories of humanity, has been viewed more than 1.2 million times as of July 2019. She has founded a range of arts institutions including the international artists space METAL. In September 2018, to mark Time Out magazine’s 50th anniversary, she was one of 50 people featured as helping to shape London’s cultural landscape and “make the city awesome”.

On the international stage, she has recently been honoured by the Finnish government in 2019 for her work with women and girls as well as being made a Knight of Denmark in 2018. She has also Chaired the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Before founding the WOW Foundation Jude was the Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre in London for 12 years. Southbank Centre is Europe’s largest Arts Institution and London’s 3rd biggest tourist attraction. In 1997, she was awarded an OBE for her services to theatre and in 2015 she was made a CBE for services to the Arts.

Hannah Chukwu is an award-winning Editor at Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House UK, where she works on literary fiction and non-fiction, working with authors such as Bernardine Evaristo, Zadie Smith and Arundhati Roy. She is an editor for Five Dials magazine, and the series editor for Black Britain: Writing Back. She is also Policy and Campaigns Consultant for the campaign ‘Lit in Colour’; run by PRH and the Runnymede Trust, the campaign aims to diversify the English GCSE curriculum. She co-founded the theatre production company Chucked Up Theatre in 2016, is a Trustee at education equality charity The Brilliant Club and a Board Member of Creative UK. In 2021 she won the LBF Trailblazer Award, the Rising Star Award in Arts and Media at the Black British Business Awards, and she was named on the EMpower Ethnic Minority Future Leader list.

Janet MarkwickFounder & CEO Markwick Consulting Ltd

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.

Sir Peter BazalgetteChair, ITV

Sir Peter Bazalgette has a distinguished career as a senior broadcasting executive.  He is a non-executive board member of the Department for Education, Chair of the Royal College of Art and co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council, the joint forum between industry and government which helps the UK’s world-leading Creative Industries to flourish. Sir Peter has an extensive career in the Creative Industries, initially as an independent television producer and inventor of internationally successful television formats.

Sir Peter led the landmark Independent Review of the Creative Industries commissioned by the government which has shaped the Creative Industries’ policy landscape over the past few years, with recommendations being taken forward in the 2018 Sector Deal. He served as President of the Royal Television Society and Deputy Chair of the National Film & TV School. He is experienced in leadership roles, working together with government and industry, having co-founded the Creative Industries Federation, which joined forces with Creative England in 2020 to become Creative UK. Sir Peter is currently the Chair of ITV, was Chair of Arts Council England and until recently, was a Board member of UKRI.

Tanya JosephsManaging Director, Corporate Affairs & Advisory – Hill + Knowlton Strategies

Tanya Josephs heads the Corporate Affairs + Advisory practice at Hill+Knowlton Strategies which brings together corporate and public affairs, issues and crisis management, internal communications and behaviour change and diversity and inclusion teams.  She has a wealth of communications experience having worked for the private, public and NGO sectors supporting them across communications.

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.

Sir Peter Bazalgette has a distinguished career as a senior broadcasting executive.  He is a non-executive board member of the Department for Education, Chair of the Royal College of Art and co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council, the joint forum between industry and government which helps the UK’s world-leading Creative Industries to flourish. Sir Peter has an extensive career in the Creative Industries, initially as an independent television producer and inventor of internationally successful television formats.

Sir Peter led the landmark Independent Review of the Creative Industries commissioned by the government which has shaped the Creative Industries’ policy landscape over the past few years, with recommendations being taken forward in the 2018 Sector Deal. He served as President of the Royal Television Society and Deputy Chair of the National Film & TV School. He is experienced in leadership roles, working together with government and industry, having co-founded the Creative Industries Federation, which joined forces with Creative England in 2020 to become Creative UK. Sir Peter is currently the Chair of ITV, was Chair of Arts Council England and until recently, was a Board member of UKRI.

Tanya Josephs heads the Corporate Affairs + Advisory practice at Hill+Knowlton Strategies which brings together corporate and public affairs, issues and crisis management, internal communications and behaviour change and diversity and inclusion teams.  She has a wealth of communications experience having worked for the private, public and NGO sectors supporting them across communications.

Tari LangCommunications and Strategic Leader; Chair of Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

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.

Mervyn LynPartner, Strategic Partnership Solutions Ltd

Mervyn Lyn has been at the coal face 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.

Gideon SpanierEditor in Chief, Campaign

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.

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.

Mervyn Lyn has been at the coal face 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.

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.