Governance Now 2025: Power! – Speakers, Facilitators and Contributors

Keith Arrowsmith, Managing Director, ProArts Plus

Keith is a qualified solicitor providing specialist legal and governance advice to organisations in the cultural, creative, heritage, and educational sectors. Keith is the Lead Governance Associate for the Clore Leadership Programme, one of the authors of the Cultural Governance Alliance’s Handbook, and creator of the EDI Benchmarking tool.  

Keith has been recommended in the independent legal publications, Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners.  

Keith was played by actor Joel Fry in the Netflix film, Bank of Dave, and casting for the musical version is due to take place in the autumn. 

Fiona Allan, Chair, Hayes Theatre

Fiona Allan is a highly respected leader in the performing arts, known for her bold approach to transformation and championing innovation in the sector. She has held executive leadership roles across major international cultural institutions, including most recently as CEO of Opera Australia. Previously, she served as Artistic Director & CEO of Birmingham Hippodrome, CEO of Curve Theatre, and Artistic Director of Wales Millennium Centre. She has also held influential industry Non-Exec positions, including President of UK Theatre and Chair of The Space, and chaired the West Midlands Tourism Board in the lead up to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Currently she serves on the Executive Council of Live Performance Australia and chairs Sydney based Hayes Theatre Co.

She is a recent Graduate of the Company Directors programme run by the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and this year became a certified Coach and a Mental Health First-Aider.

Delia Barker, Chair, Phoenix Dance Theatre & CEO Brixton House 

Delia Barker is the CEO of Brixton House. She has worked at senior level within the cultural sector for several years, regularly delivers mentoring sessions and public speaking engagements across sectors, fundraises for charities such as Dementia UK, and is a Member for the Mulberry School Trust. Previous roles include Director of Leadership and Organisational Development at Deeds and Words, Programmes Director at The Roundhouse, Director of English National Ballet School, and Chair of Phoenix Dance Theatre following 10 years as Chair of Studio Wayne McGregor. Delia is also a Governor of the Royal Ballet School. Alongside her governance work, as a consultant she has supported organisations such as Drake Music, Jasmin Vardimon Company, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Greater London Authority, and Clore Leadership. She has also supported organisations such as BT, Nationwide, and NHS England to address specific issues around organisational cultures and race equity. Delia is accredited as an Organisational Development practitioner after studying with the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural Science and is trained in Action Learning Set facilitation (including virtual sets). 

Ankur Bahl, Actor, Writer and Culture-Sector Executive

 Ankur is an actor, writer and culture-sector executive. 

Ankur’s theatre career has spanned performances with DV8, National Theatre, Rifco Arts, RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tara Arts, and Wise Children. His film and TV credits include productions for Apple, Disney, HBO, Marvel, Netflix and Sky. Ankur is also the Associate Director and Writer at VOXED.

Additionally, Ankur advises culture sector clients through Studio Reith and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator Programme. Previously, Ankur was the Director of Digital Stage & Studio at Sadler’s Wells and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.  

A graduate of NYU, London Contemporary Dance School, SOAS and Northwestern University, Ankur was also a Fulbright and Marshall Scholar. He proudly serves on the Board of Trustees of Paines Plough and co-hosted the podcast Arts Work.

Vicki Grace, Director of Recruitment and Organisational Change

Vicki is Achates’ Director of Recruitment and Organisational change and leads on our distinctive approach to executive appointment, leadership training and development, and organisational change management for a range of organisations across the sector.

Vicki leads all of our recruitment and organisational change work and has developed Achates’ distinctive approach to Executive Appointment, Recruitment and Organisational Change. 

Prior to joining Achates, Vicki was Executive Director at award-winning theatre company Improbable, responsible for the business function of the organisation. Prior to that she was Development Director at the Royal Court Theatre and Deputy Development Director at the Donmar Warehouse specialising in income generation growth and managing complex stakeholder relationships.

She has held other fundraising roles at Shakespeare’s Globe and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Vicki is also Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for Constitutional and Democratic Research and has held Board positions with Magic Me, Pleasance Theatre Trust and Theatre Uncut.

Francesca Hegyi OBE, CEO, Edinburgh International Festival

Francesca Hegyi OBE is Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival. She has worked in culture, the arts and major events for more than 25 years.  

Francesca began her career in the museums sector before becoming Head of Regions and International at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. In 2005, she joined the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Here she was responsible for the framework for the UK-wide cultural programme, leading fundraising and commercial partnerships for the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival – a £126 million programme which worked with more than 40,000 artists.  

As Executive Director of Hull 2017 UK City of Culture, Francesca oversaw a programme of events which reached over 95% of Hull residents, created over 800 jobs and added more than £300 million to the local economy. She was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year Honours list for this work.  

Having previously studied and worked in Edinburgh; Francesca returned to the city to join the Edinburgh International Festival in February 2019. Outside of the Festival, she serves as Deputy Chair of the Creative Industries Council, as a member of the UK Government’s Soft Power Council, the Scottish Government’s Event Industry, and Scottish Connections Advisory Groups and the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s Business Leaders Group. 

Darren Henley, CEO Arts Council England 

Darren Henley CBE is chief executive of Arts Council England. His boardroom experience spans arts, media, education, charity and government. While managing director of Classic FM, he authored independent government reviews into music education and cultural education in England. His book ‘The Arts Dividend: How Investment in Culture Creates Happier Lives’ champions the positive impact of public investment in the arts, museums and libraries. He holds a degree in politics, a postgraduate diploma in coaching, master’s degrees in positive psychology, management and art history, and a doctorate exploring the role of the outsider as an agent for change. 

Owen Hopkin, Director, New Technologies & Innovation, Arts Council England

As Director of New Technologies and Innovation at Arts Council England, Owen supports the use of new technologies, the distribution and business models of digital content, as well as digital and data skills in the arts and culture sector. He joined Arts Council England from The Space where he was Head of Audience Development and Distribution, working on over 70 commissions across a range of artforms. Before The Space, he was a Marketing Manager at Amazon in the Video Games category, where he was responsible for developing the customer base and revenue-generating strategies. Prior to that, Owen was at Global Radio, managing the digital properties of some of the UK’s biggest media brands. He began his professional career as a musician, touring internationally and recording. His work as a musician continues with Far From Saints, the chart-topping UK/US collective. 

Obi James, Executive Coach, Leadership & Inclusion Expert

Obi James is an award-winning Finnish-Nigerian Executive Coach, Leadership & Inclusion Expert, and Author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Let Go Leadership: How Inclusive Leaders Share Power to Drive High Performance. 

For over 20 years, Obi has developed senior leaders and boards across Europe, Africa and the Americas – transforming organisations to turn inclusion from a value statement into a practical driver of performance, innovation and trust. Her work equips leaders to navigate power and difference, embrace healthy conflict, and build the high-performance cultures needed to thrive in complexity. 

Her career spans in-house leadership roles at Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, Bank of America, and Northern Trust (where she served as Vice President), and client engagements with organisations such as Bloomberg, the NHS, Greater London Authority, MunichRe, London Business School, and Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters. 

A powerful facilitator and keynote speaker, Obi blends systemic thinking, deep democracy, and behavioural science to develop leadership teams to unlock collective potential and lead lasting change. 

She serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director at UAC of Nigeria Plc (one of Nigeria’s oldest conglomerates), and is a Trustee and Chair of the Nominations & Governance Committee at the Royal African Society (est. 1901). She’s also a Judge for the Africa CEO Forum, UK StartUp Awards, Business Book Awards and Speaker Awards. 

Stella Kanu, CEO Shakespeare’s Globe 

Stella Kanu is CEO at Shakespeare’s Globe, a cultural landmark that exists to produce trailblazing and inspiring productions, experiences, and Education programmes that, ‘Puts Shakespeare to Work’ for this moment. 

Previously Executive Director at LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) she led the strategic strands of the business as well as executive producing international work like The Second Woman starring two-time Olivier Award winner Ruth Wilson voted the best show of 2023 (Time Out). Stella has worked in the theatre, festival, and cultural sector for 30 years. She founded The Pivotal Place, a coaching practice and methodology for creative leaders, in 2005. 

She is Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan’s representative to Arts Council England, and sits on the Advisory Board at the drama school Rose Bruford. An alumna of University of Wales, Aberystwyth; Middlesex University Writing Centre and Oxford Brookes University Business School. She is a sought- after panelist, speaker, and writer. 

Stella is a Cultural Leadership International Powerbrokers Fellow (2008), an Honorary Fellow at Rose Bruford College (2021), was named one of the Alfred Fagon Award 25 Black Theatre Champions (2022) was recently named one of the 100 Black Women to Have Make a Mark (2023) and listed in The Stage 100 power list (2024). 

Yasmin Khan, Director, Individual Practitioners and London, Arts Council England

Yasmin Khan is Director for Individual Practitioners and London at Arts Council England. Her 50/50 role at Arts Council England combines policy and practice, from local to national. As Director for Individual Practitioners, she collaborates with teams and sector partners to integrate a freelancer lens across art forms and regions. For the other half of her remit as Director of Visual Arts and Museums, she leads a team of Senior Relationship Managers responsible for 60 National Portfolio Organisations in London. 

Prior to joining the Arts Council in 2024, Yasmin ran Covalent Creatives, a curatorial consultancy that produced socially engaged projects including Empowering Curators at the Art Fund as Programme Consultant, curating Outwitting Cancer at the Francis Crick Institute, Britain’s largest biomedical lab; launching the Cultural Governance Alliance with Clore Leadership; and hosting a limited-edition podcast series called The Museum of Truth & Lies as part of her 2023/4 Fellowship at the Storytelling Institute, University of the Arts London. 

Yasmin’s earlier career includes roles at the Science Museum and the British Library. She was a committee member for Arts Council England’s Accreditation Scheme and was also an Artistic Quality Assessor for museums. 

Joanna Moriarty, Partner, Green Park

 Joanna is a Partner at Green Park Executive Search, and sits in the Civil Society and Government Practice, where she focusses on work in Arts, Culture and Heritage, and with Trusts and Foundations. Her recent clients include the Royal Court Theatre, the National Trust and the Barbican. She has a background in the third sector, and a deep interest in governance, especially how the board can influence culture and creates conditions for change. She currently sits on the board of an INGO and a large Multi-Academy Trust.

Caroline Mccormick, Director, Achates

Caroline leads on the development of Achates’ strategic approach and major projects. She has developed and delivered strategies, campaigns and processes of organisational change in all artforms and scales of organisation across the country and internationally. Caroline developed The Achates Triple Bottom Line© and purpose-led, audience-informed approach which seeks to ensure arts organisations balance the interests of diverse audience groups with the priorities of culture to enable resilience with integrity.

In 2005, having completed the £70 million capital campaign to create the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum, Caroline became the first Director of PEN International, heading up 145 Centres in 105 countries and acting as the Literature Representative at UNESCO. Taking up the role four days a week also allowed her to start working with her first consultancy client, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai, whom she advised and worked with until her death.

Since founding Achates, the company has advised over 500 organisations of all scales, from individual artists and activists to major national charities. Caroline is currently leading the development of Organisational Strategy and Theory of Change for organisations ranging from the Barbican, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Roundhouse.

Caroline is Chair of the Cultural Philanthropy Foundation and, in 2015, founded the national campaign for support for the arts, the Achates Philanthropy Prize. She is a Trustee of the National Centre for Writing in Norwich.

John Mcgrath, Artistic Director & Chief Executive, Factory International

John is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International, the company which runs Manchester’s recently-opened Aviva Studios, Manchester International Festival and Factory Academy, as well as a substantial online and international programme.  Before opening Aviva Studios in October 2023, John curated four editions of Manchester International Festival, featuring new work by an international range of artists including Yoko Ono, Philip Glass, Skepta, Ibrahim Mahama, Tania Bruguera and many more. 

Prior to this role, John was the founding Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales, where he directed work including The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, and produced shows such as The Passion of Port Talbot and Coroilan/us.  He has also led Manchester’s Contact Theatre, and was Associate Director at Mabou Mines in New York.  He has a PhD from New York University and an honorary doctorate from the Open University, and has published widely in the field of cultural theory.   

Caroline Norbury, CEO, Creative UK

Caroline Norbury, OBE is the founding Chief Executive of Creative UK.  Dedicated to championing the creative industries, Creative UK invests in and supports creative ideas, talent and businesses, harnessing the power of the creative sector to build a fairer, more prosperous world.  Creative UK has leveraged over £100m into creative businesses and projects across the country and uses its extensive membership and networks as a change maker and advocate for a world where creativity is valued and recognised as a driving force of our future.  

Caroline began her career working in community arts before becoming a film and TV producer, focusing on supporting new talent and those whose voices had traditionally been absent from mainstream media and storytelling.  

A member of BAFTA and the Royal Society of Arts, Caroline sits on the Creative Industries Council and co-chairs the Growth working group of the Council.  Caroline is a founding board member of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Agency, (CIISA) and Chairwoman of the cross-industry “Roundtable” group focused on reducing bullying, harassment, and discrimination in the Creative Sector.    

Caroline is a member of the Board of Trustees at Aardman, an employee-owned company and has two honorary doctorates from the University of Essex and Arts University Bournemouth.  She was previously a trustee of the PRS Foundation, supporting the development of new music and musicians, and was previously Chairwoman of The Music Works, a small charity in Gloucestershire supporting young people in challenging circumstances to have better lives through music. 

Nicola Nuttall, Consultant and Director of Tempus Fugit Consultancy & Director, Charles Causley Trust 

Nicola has worked in the wider cultural sector for 30 years, starting her career in archaeology and the built heritage, before specialising in museum and gallery strategy, governance, advocacy, engagement and fundraising. Since setting up her own consultancy since 1997, Nicola has worked with over 90 clients ranging from national museums and heritage organisations to small volunteer led charities and universities. She is currently the part-time Director of the Charles Causley Trust and the Ken Stradling Collection, a mentor, trainer and advisor to the Association of Independent Museums, Heritage Compass, Cause 4 and the Universities of Exeter, Plymouth, and Falmouth. 

Laura Pye, Director, National Museums Liverpool  

Laura Pye, Director of National Museums Liverpool, joined the organisation in August 2018. Born in Liverpool, Laura returned to the city following several years as Head of Culture for Bristol City Council, with responsibility for the five museums in the city.  Prior to moving to Bristol, Laura was interim Heritage and Culture Manager for Warwickshire County Council, covering a similar mix of services to Bristol including the Museums and Archives, Arts, Archaeology and Ecology teams.  Laura’s early career in museums was focused mainly on museum education, and she has a wealth of experience of working in the North of England, across Liverpool, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. 

Fran Sanderson CFA, Chief Executive Officer Figurative

Fran started her career in fund management at JPMorgan following an MA in Philosophy and Maths and periodic work in charity administration and fundraising. After this, she took a career break in which she travelled around Europe and settled for a year living off-grid in Portugal with her young family. On her return, she joined Big Society Capital (now Better Society Capital) as an investment director, where she worked on a wide variety of impact investment deals. 

Fran joins Figurative from Nesta, where she was Director of the Arts & Culture Investments and Programmes team. The team worked on various projects with the aim of understanding and articulating the full breadth of impact of arts, culture and the creative economy; promoting innovative funding models and partnerships such as impact investing, blended finance, and crowdfunding; and helping arts and cultural organisations experiment with, benefit from and boost their impact via new technologies. 

Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director, Graeae Theatre

Jenny Sealey OBE has been Graeae’s Artistic Director since 1997.  She has pioneered a new theatrical language-‘aesthetics of artistic access’ experimenting with bilingual BSL(British Sign Language) and English, prerecorded BSL, creative captioning, in ear/ live audio description methods. Two, The Fall of the House of Usher, peeling, Bent, Blasted (2005), Diary of an Action Man, Blood Wedding, opera Paradis Files(Japan) Romeo and Juliet in Japan and Bangladesh, and most recently at Shakespeare North Playhouse and Theatre by the Lake are particular examples. She co- wrote and performed her one woman show Self Raising in 2023 and in that same year was on Desert Island Discs and created the first ever BSL version of this. 

Graeae’s ethos, the aesthetic and placing of Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists centre stage has engineered a cultural shift and influenced and changed how the wider mainstream creative industry work nationally and internationally.   

Outdoor productions include Against the Tide; The Iron Man; The Garden, and This Is Not For You as part of 14-18Now with disabled veterans. 

Jenny co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony alongside Bradley Hemmings (GDIF). The same year she won the Liberty Human Rights Arts Award. She is a honorary fellow at Middlesex University, Royal Conservatoire Scotland, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Kent University.

Cat Sheridan, Senior Producer, Unlimited

 Cat Sheridan (she/her) is a disabled queer senior cultural leader and producer with a track record of delivering ambitious artistic programmes and driving organisational change. As Senior Producer at Unlimited, she heads the programme department, overseeing national and international commissioning, projects and strategic partnerships. She also leads Unlimited’s CONNECT priority, linking allies with artists and supporting the wider sector to drive systemic change and build equitable, mutually beneficial partnerships. Cat is also Managing Director of an award-winning queer therapy service. Previously, she held senior roles at Cumbernauld Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre, pioneering accessible, relaxed, and disabled-led performance. She creates programmes that challenge expectations, expand audiences, and embed inclusive practice at every level of cultural leadership.  

Robin Simpson, Chief Executive Creative Lives

Since 2005 Robin Simpson has been Chief Executive of Creative Lives, the UK and Republic of Ireland charity which champions community and volunteer-led creative activity, and works to improve opportunities for everyone to be creative. Creative Lives works with communities, organisations, policy-makers, funders, communities and creative individuals as a voice for positive change, to improve and expand the landscape in which creative participation can take place. It works to address inequalities in access to creative participation, promotes inclusivity, connects people and communities, and seeks to increase awareness of the links between creativity and wellbeing. 

Previously Robin was Deputy Chief Executive of Making Music – supporting over 2,000 amateur music groups throughout the UK, including choirs, orchestras, and music promoters. Robin also worked as General Manager of The British Federation of Festivals, supporting the volunteer organisers of more than 300 festivals of music, dance and speech & drama across the UK. Robin has substantial experience of working with volunteers having also worked for six years for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, managing a team of over 130 volunteer readers to record academic textbooks onto tape for visually-impaired students. 

Robin is the Chair of Peterborough Presents, the Peterborough Creative People & Places Consortium. From 2015-22 Robin was Chair of the Steering Group for the national Get Creative campaign – a partnership between the BBC and hundreds of arts and cultural organisations across the UK. Robin was a founding Trustee of Luminate – Scotland’s creative ageing organisation. He has been a Trustee of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and a member of the ChangeUp Volunteering Hub Scrutiny Committee. Robin has served on committees and boards for: Cabinet Office; Department for Culture, Media and Sport; the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Moira Sinclair, Chair, Factory International & Chair, Clore Leadership

Moira Sinclair was Chief Executive of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, one of the UK’s largest independent grant makers from 2015 to early 2025 .

An experienced cultural leader, Moira is Chair of Clore Leadership and Chair of Factory International in Manchester. She is also a trustee of National Landscapes and the National Theatre Foundation and she chairs the Investment Committee for the Arts Impact Fund. In 2022, she became an Honorary Fellow at the Exeter Centre for Leadership. She was previously Chair of the London Mayor’s Cultural Strategy Board and a member of the British Library Advisory Council

As Executive Director London and South East for Arts Council England for nearly 10 years, she oversaw a portfolio of 322 funded cultural organisations and contributed to national policy development, with a particular focus on the resilience and sustainability of the cultural sector and workforce development. She played a key role supporting the cultural programme for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and continues to support its legacy at home and internationally.

Kate Varah, Executive Director National Theatre

Kate Varah (she/her) is Executive Director at National Theatre, working with Director Indhu Rubasingham to deliver and advocate for the theatre’s huge national and international impact on stages, in cinemas, classrooms, community spaces, and online. Kate became joint CEO in May 2024. 

Experienced arts leader, related current trustee and advisory roles include: Council Member, Creative UK; Sheffield Theatres Crucible Trust (Trustee); PiPA Parents in the Performing Arts (Ambassador); member of: CIISA Co Creation Council; Creative Industries Council Growth Group; the Erskine Analysis formed UAL Advisory Council to understand how trade, migration and foreign policy can better support the creative industries. 

Previous roles include Executive Director at the Old Vic; Business Development Director at inclusive theatre company Chickenshed; Solicitor Advocate (Employment) at Linklaters in London, Hong Kong, on secondment to JPMorgan, and additionally managing Pro Bono and Community Investment. 

Varied past Trustee and Chair roles performed including: Society of London Theatre Board (Trustee, 2020-2023); Chickenshed, inclusive theatre company (Trustee, 2010-2016); Samaritans Chad Varah Memorial Appeal Taskforce, funding Samaritans Connect (Committee, 2010); and co-founding The Michael Varah Memorial Fund, a grant giving trust working to level the playing field for offenders (Trustee, 2007-date). Honorary Fellow at Keble College, Oxford and Fellow of the RSA. 

Jenny Waldman, Director Art Fund

Jenny Waldman is Director of Art Fund, the UK’s national fundraising charity for art and museums. For over 120 years, Art Fund has helped museums and people to share in great art and culture: through funding art, helping museums to enrich their collections today and forever; building audiences, with our National Art Pass opening doors to great culture; and advocating for the museum sector, through Art Fund Museum of the Year award and creative events that bring the UK’s museums together.