The Team

Chris Smith was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, and Pembroke College, Cambridge where he took a double first in English. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard, and completed his Cambridge PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1979. He was a Labour councillor for Islington Borough for five years, and was chairman of housing from 1981 to 1983. In 1983 he became MP for Islington South and Finsbury. In 1992 he joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Environmental Protection, and two years later moved to heritage, then Social Security and Health. When Labour came to power in 1997 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. He returned to the back benches after the 2001 election, where he retained his commitment to the arts and heritage. 

Chris is currently Chairman of the Advertising Standards Authority, Chairman of the Wordsworth Trust, Chairman of the Donmar Warehouse, a member of the board of the National Theatre, Chairman of Classic FM's consumer panel, and is on the advisory council of the London Symphony Orchestra. He is a Visiting Professor in Culture and the Creative Industries at the University of the Arts London, an honorary Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge, and Chair of the London Cultural Consortium. He was Chair of the Judges for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2004, and remained MP for Islington South and Finsbury until the 2005 election when he stepped down after 22 years. He was given a peerage in June 2005.

Deputy Director - Sue Hoyle

Sue Hoyle was educated at Nottingham High School for Girls and Bristol University, graduating with a First in Drama and French. She began her career as a university lecturer and tutor in adult education before joining London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) initially in the Press and Marketing department, and then becoming its first Education Officer. She left to be Manager of Extemporary Dance Theatre and then joined the Arts Council as Dance and Mime Officer. She was promoted to Director of Dance and in 1994 to Deputy Secretary General. In 1997 she was appointed Head of Arts for the British Council in Paris. Prior to joining the Clore Leadership Programme, she was Executive Director of The Place, London's international centre for contemporary dance, for five years.

Sue is Arts Council England's Lead Adviser for Dance, chairs the Board of DV8 Physical Theatre, is a Board member of CreateKX, and adviser to City University, King’s College London Enterprises and the British Council’s Drama and Dance Department. She is a patron of the Foundation for Community Dance and has previously been a Director on the Boards of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Theatre and Ricochet Dance Productions. As a consultant and facilitator, she has worked with a range of UK and overseas institutions, including the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and ELIA, and is co-author of a comparative study on funding for culture in France and Britain.

Fellowship Associate - Prue Skene CBE

Prue Skene is Chairman of Rambert Dance Company and a Trustee of the Nureyev Foundation, the Stephen Spender Memorial Trust, and Friends of the V&A. An experienced arts administrator, she was responsible for Rambert’s administration from 1975-1986 and then became Executive Producer of the English Shakespeare Company (1987-90 and again in 1992), producing that company's successful THE WARS OF THE ROSES world tour. She was Director of the Arts Foundation 1993-98 and since then has worked as a freelance consultant for, amongst others, Arts Council England, the Royal National Theatre, Performing Arts Labs, Dance UK , and the Rayne Foundation. 

Her non-executive appointments have included President of the Theatrical Management Association (1991-92), Chairman of the Dancers Resettlement Trust (1988-92), Trustee of the Centre for Visual Arts in Cardiff (1996-2000) and of NESTA (2006-07), a non-executive Director of Royal United Hospital NHS Trust (1999-2003) and of Bath Theatre Royal (1998-2003), and Chairman of the Arvon Foundation (2001-2005). From 1992-2000 she was a member of the Arts Council of England and was Chairman of its Dance Panel (1992-96) and its Lottery (subsequently Capital) Advisory Panel (1996-2000. She was awarded a CBE in the 2000 Birthday Honours List for services to the arts, especially dance. 

For the Clore Leadership Programme Prue gives regular governance sessions for the Short Course programme, has lead a Board development programme and in March 2008 became Fellowship Associate.