UK’s Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Conference

Sir Peter Bazalgette is Co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council. Previously he led a 2017 independent review into the UK’s creative industries. He also chairs the Council of the Royal College of Art. From 2013 until 2017 he chaired Arts Council England.

Peter is a Senior Independent Director on the board of Saga plc and also sits on the board of the children’s animation company, Acamar. From 2016 to 2022 he chaired ITV, and previously served on the board of Channel 4. He spent many years as a TV producer, devising several internationally successful formats.  He became chief creative officer of Endemol and was later President of the Royal Television Society.

Sir Peter has also been a non-executive board member of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and currently chairs the Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Book Prize Trustees. He also chaired the steam museum, Crossness Engines.

He’s currently on the board of Department for Education and previously performed the same role for DCMS.

Peter’s book about the business of TV formats, Billion Dollar Game (Time Warner), came out in 2005, and in 2017 he published The Empathy Instinct (John Murray) which explores the power of storytelling in the arts.

Hannah is the Culture and the Creative Industries Director at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Her directorate is responsible for leading policy development for arts, libraries, museums and the creative industries. Hannah has been a civil servant for over 20 years and her previous senior civil service roles include reforming the state pension; policy and delivery of automatic enrolment; and responsibility for insurance markets in the Treasury, and the Civil Society and Youth sectors in DCMS.

Professor Christopher Smith is the Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and International Champion and Creative Industries Sector Champion for UK Research and Innovation.

Hasan is Professor of Economics of the Creative Industries and Director of the the Creative PEC, which is led by Newcastle University with the RSA, and funded by the AHRC. The Creative PEC is charged with improving the evidence base for policies to support the UK’s creative industries.

Hasan’s work includes co-authoring the landmark Next Gen skills review of the video games and visual effects industries, which led to wholesale reforms of the school ICT curriculum in England, and the Manifesto for the Creative Economy, which sets out ten recommendations by which governments can help the creative economy grow. Hasan has a particular interest in data and experimental research methods. In 2017, he co-authored The Future of Skills: Employment in 2030 which combines foresight methods and machine learning to predict the likely workforce skills mix in the future. In 2020, he designed and led a cohort study of cultural consumption in the UK’s first national lock down. 

Prior to Nesta, Hasan worked as Executive Director at Lehman Brothers, as Deputy Chief Economist at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as an economist at the Bank of England. He has published widely in academic journals and policy publications on topics ranging from technological progress and economic growth to the economics of the creative and cultural sector.

Hasan has a BA in Economics from Cambridge and an MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Brighton for his work on economic policy for the creative industries. In the 2015 New Year’s Honours he was awarded an MBE for services to the creative industries.

Hasan is a member of the government’s Creative Industries Council and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Advisory Board for its Culture and Heritage Capital Framework. He was elected as member of the Royal Economic Society Council from 2017-2022. Hasan currently serves on the board of two arts organisations: Art UK and Darbar Arts.

Tonya Nelson is Executive Director, Enterprise & Innovation at Arts Council England. She joined the Arts Council when she was appointed to be the first Director of Arts Technology and Innovation in 2019. She is the co-author of the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) policy report titled Culture is Digital. She sits on the board of Trustees of the National Gallery in London and Royal Collection Trust, which looks after the Royal Collection and the official residences of His Majesty The King. She was formerly Chair of the International Council of Museums (UK), Bomb Factory Art Foundation and a member of Christie’s Art World Professional Advisory Group. She worked for University College London for nine years, rising to the level of Director of Museums and Cultural Programmes.

Prior to entering the cultural sector, she was a barrister and management consultant in Washington, DC, where she grew up.

Philippa Childs is the Head of Bectu, the UK’s union for the creative industries.

She is the first woman to hold the position of Head of Bectu, a role she took on shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic brought much of the creative industries to a sudden halt and created unprecedented challenges for the sector’s workers.

This was closely followed by the almost total shutdown of the UK’s film and TV industry in 2023, following historical industrial action in the United States, during which Childs continued to advocate for increased support and improved rights for freelancers.

Childs oversees Bectu’s five divisions, covering broadcasting, film and TV production, and arts and entertainment – championing the rights of nearly 40,000 staff and freelance workers across the creative industries.

As the largest union at the BBC and with a strong presence in many of the UK’s leading theatres, arts centres and independent broadcasting and production companies, Bectu is uniquely placed to secure workplace fairness and equality on behalf of its members.

Childs has spent much of her career in trade unions, with previous tenures at the National Union of Civil and Public Servants (now PCS), the Trades Union Congress National Education Centre and EMA, now part of Bectu’s parent union Prospect.

Reema Selhi is the Head of Policy and International at DACS, a non-profit organisation that manages artists’ copyright. She advocates on behalf of visual artists to champion their vital contribution to the UK’s creative industries, and on the importance of their intellectual property rights. She supports DACS’ policy and public affairs work including on the intersection of AI and copyright, campaigns to safeguard artists’ IP rights and the establishment of the APPG for visual arts. Reema regularly speaks on sustainable policies for artists in the UK and internationally.

Reema is a UK-qualified lawyer. She is a Trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA); Board Director of the British Copyright Council; and Vice Chair at the Alliance for Intellectual Property. She holds a BA (Hons) from UCL and studied at Central St Martins, University of the Arts London.

Dr Aoife Monks directs the Queen Mary Centre for Creative Collaboration, working strategically with the cultural and creative industries to generate research and skills initiatives in response to urgent sector needs.  She is Director of Research in Queen Mary’s Department of Drama and writes on backstage theatre, focusing on the work-cultures and material practices of theatre technicians and actors.

Hilary Carty OBE is the Executive Director, Clore Leadership, a role she took up after six years as a consultant, facilitator and coach specialising in leadership development, management and organisational change. Hilary’s earlier roles include Director of the Cultural Leadership Programme; Director, London (Arts) at Arts Council England; Director, Culture and Education at London 2012; Director of Dance for Arts Council England; Visiting Professor on leadership (Austria); and HLF London Committee Member. In recognition of her contribution to the arts, culture and heritage, Hilary has been awarded three Honorary Doctorates and three Fellowships from UK Universities.  Hilary is a Governor of the Royal Ballet.

Sara is currently the Director of Skills and Workforce Development at the British Film Institute, overseeing a multi-million-pound portfolio of initiatives designed to develop and progress a greater diversity of people into the screen workforce and support businesses to adopt inclusive operating cultures.  She also works closely with Government departments in all nations of the UK to both inform, and create sectoral responses to, skills policy priorities.

Sara is passionate about supporting fair and equal entry to work across the creative and cultural industries regardless of one’s background, previous educational achievement, or personal circumstances.  Having previously held senior roles at ScreenSkills and Creative & Cultural Skills, she has led the development and delivery of national sector skills programmes supporting sectoral growth whilst opening the sector’s doors to those that are underrepresented in the workforce. She has also worked with hundreds of employers to help them learn about fair access and adopt inclusive recruitment practices.  During her time at Arts Council England, Sara co-created the £15 million Creative Employment Programme, which she subsequently went on to deliver, supporting thousands of unemployed young people into work across the arts.  She later created and led the delivery of the award-winning Discover Creative Careers Week, which continues today.

Sara initially trained at art school, later training as a post-16 teacher, she has also worked in both Further and Higher Education.

Tim Reeve has been Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) since 2013, as well as leading the development of V&A East Museum and Storehouse in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, East London, as part of the East Bank cultural and educational legacy. Before joining the V&A, Tim was Director of Historic Properties at English Heritage, and he is a trustee of the Canal and River Trust, a member of the Hunterian Strategic Development Board, a Director of V&A Dundee, and a member of the Exhibition Road Cultural Group (ERCG).

Anna is a senior intellectual property lawyer, with over 10 years’ experience advising clients on strategic IP advice and litigation.   

Anna provides clear, commercially astute advice and has particular expertise advising clients undergoing digital transformation in the technology, media and comms and life sciences sectors.  She has advised extensively on the opportunities and risks created by AI for IP, including in respect of web-scraping and the use of copyright and databases to train AI models.  Her clients include TV broadcasters, global digital media brands and advertising and marketing businesses.

Anna is listed as a Key Lawyer in Legal 500 in respect of trade mark, copyright and design law.  She is listed as a “Rising Star” in IP Stars. Clients say she is “skilled, highly effective and resourceful” (Legal 500). She has also been called “calm-in a storm” and “[good] at coming up with new ways of doing things”.  Anna has been recognised by World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) as a worldwide trailblazer in its “Influential Women in IP” publication.  This award was given to those global lawyers who “stood out by virtue of their impressive practice in IP and their sterling efforts to promote diversity and inclusion”.

Anna has valuable in-house experience, having spent 9 months on secondment at Kantar, the international market research company.  While on secondment she worked with IP creators and key business stakeholders to build an innovative digital IP records and capture system tailored to client needs.  This project with Kantar was highly commended at the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards in 2023.

Anna was Chair of IPSoc from 2019 – 2021.  Anna holds a Postgraduate Diploma in IP Law and Practice and a Masters’ degree with Distinction from Oxford University, as well as a First Class Honours degree from the University of Edinburgh. Anna qualified in 2014 and joined Osborne Clarke in 2016. 

Outside of work, Anna is an “enthusiastic” right-arm, medium-pace bowler for her local Women’s cricket team in North London, as well as a perpetually optimistic, (often-disappointed) Arsenal season ticket holder.

Mel Rodrigues is the CEO of Creative Access, the leading UK social enterprise championing diversity, equity & inclusion across the creative industries. With 20+ years’ experience in the screen & digital sectors, Mel brings a crucial non-London-centric perspective to expanding the organisation’s reach across the UK. Prior to Creative Access, Mel enjoyed a long career in TV, working across network productions & leading creative diversity initiatives at TEDx, BBC and Channel 4. In 2019 she founded Gritty Talent – an award-winning talent & tech company building inclusive systems to connecti under-represented talent to the TV industry – funded by Innovate UK. Mel is also Non-Executive Director & current Vice Chair of Women in Film and TV (WFTV).

Rob Lehmann is the Director of Young Lyric at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, strategically overseeing the Lyrics award winning work with young people aged 0 – 25 across West London. He co-founded the Lyrics ground-breaking SPRINGBOARD, the free part time actor training programme for young people underrepresented in theatre. Prior to this, he was Head of Participation and the Young Vic and is a graduate from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Across his career, Rob has led participatory cultural exchange programmes in Australia, Canada, Egypt, South Africa, Taiwan and Zimbabwe.

Jacqui is Director of Creative Learning and Engagement at the RSC, leading its work with children, young people, teachers, adult learners and partner theatres across the UK and around the world. Jacqui originally trained as an actor, working in regional theatres and at the National Theatre. She worked for many years as a drama practitioner in schools and communities prior to joining the RSC. Jacqui was appointed Director of Learning in 2008.

As a cultural learning specialist, Jacqui is passionate about giving everyone equal access to high quality creative arts opportunities and the power of arts-rich experiences in unlocking potential. She is committed to actions that diversify the creative industries and empower people to discover new skills, using arts and creativity to affect social change. Jacqui has an interest in research, particularly finding accessible ways to share and disseminate it to inform real-world decision making.

Jacqui’s tenure as Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance ended in 2022. She is a primary school governor and was a Commissioner for the Durham Commission in Creativity in Education. She received an MBE for services to the arts in the Queen’s 2022 New Year’s New Year’s Honours List.

Deborah is CEO of the ISM, Chair of the Creator Rights Alliance, former Chair of ERA, member of the Creative Industries Council and a Trade Commissioner for Best of Britain. Prior to working at the ISM Deborah worked as an expert employment lawyer specialising in discrimination law, with 15 years’ experience in the City of London. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at Queen Mary University, has been named by Woman’s Hour on its power list of women working in music and was also named on the Music Week Roll of Honour in 2022

Marlene has helped to ensure that NSEAD remains a stable and progressive Trade Union, Subject Association and Learned Society, throughout the many recent global and domestic challenges faced by the sector.

In 2020, Marlene was a founding member of the Anti-Racist Art Education Action (ARAEA) group, which is committed to challenging racism and identifying what it looks like in art, craft, and design education.

In 2022, she steered the creation of NSEAD’s new Black Art Educators network: a self-organised group for Black educators, students and individuals from the wider NSEAD membership and community.

In addition to her consultancy work, Marlene also served as the Visualise Project Lead for the Runnymede Trust. She led the Visualising Inclusive Practice team and project, which delivered the first major research commission into access to the visual arts for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students.

Through various publications and presentations, she now reflects on her own journey through art and education, which has led her to become the first Black president of NSEAD, signalling a clear commitment and vision for equity and access to art, craft and design, and a historic moment for the subject and its educators.

Shanaz is known for her skillset as an artist, producer and for her creative vision. With a commitment to the arts and to creating work that pushes boundaries of cultural expression, Shanaz has emerged as a prominent leader in the UK cultural sector.

Her career spans film, visual arts, theatre, public art and media, and she has delivered ground-breaking projects nationally and internationally, most recently as a producer at Manchester International Festival.

Shanaz has several TV credits, most notably working with the BBC to present the documentary film ‘Hidden Histories: The Lost Portraits of Bradford’ and bringing a contemporary artist’s perspective to the Yorkshire landscape in ‘Yorkshire Walks’.

In her capacity as Creative Director at Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture, Shanaz is co-leading a transformative cultural renaissance, with initiatives that celebrate diversity, artistic innovation, and community engagement. Shanaz oversees the leadership and direction of Bradford 2025 alongside Executive Director, Dan Bates.

With extensive experience at the forefront of the Socially Engaged Arts sector, Kim is a leader in community place-making, co-creation and creative community enterprise development.  She focuses on approaches that imbed transferable skills opportunities, enabling people to take charge and sustain cultural programmes long after a project’s conclusion.

Kim is the founder, CEO, and Artistic Director of Take A Part (TAP), a leading Socially Engaged Arts organisation, spearheadeding numerous initiatives and established multiple creative community social enterprises and cultural organisations. Through TAP, Kim has worked with national and international cultural and community sector organisations, researchers, funders and schools to support knowledge transfer and application of community-led collaborative projects and programmes.

Her contributions to the field have been recognised with an MBE for ‘Services to Social Engagement in the Arts’, marking the first time social arts practice has been honoured in this way.

Anne Torreggiani founded Audience Agency, a non-profit dedicated to R&D in the cultural sector in 2011, and has seen it grow into an organisation employing over 50 people with hundreds of clients in the UK and across the world. She is anan adviser and facilitator specialising in audience research and strategy, trends and patterns of public engagement with particular interests in audience insight, cultural democracy and innovation.  She is author of various guides and publications on these subjects and campaigns for change in policy and practice towards an audience-centred approach and better use of data and other evidence. She is Associate Director of the Centre for Cultural Value, a research centre funded by the AHRC and based at the University of Leeds. She is an experienced trustee – currently of Europeana – and a regular speaker in the UK and internationally.

Matt Scarff is the Managing Director of BAFTA albert, the leading screen industry organisation for environmental sustainability. Matt is a creative leader with over three decades experience in shaping the landscape of media and entertainment, working at industry giants including; ITV, SKY, UKTV, STAR TV, Radio Television Hong Kong, BBC and Merlin Entertainments.

Before joining albert, Matt was a staunch advocate for D&I and sustainability, playing a key role in ITV Creative’s achievement of the albert Sustainable Certification for its eco-friendly approach to productions and campaigns.

In his current role, Matt is responsible for setting the overall direction for the organisation and collaborating with the industry to help drive us towards a net zero society. The work Matt does for albert is underpinned by a robust blueprint that focuses on four key areas to drive meaningful change. These areas are; off-screen actions, content and storytelling, culture and capability and standards measurement and reporting.

Jamie is the co-founder and general manager of SAIL, a not for profit that supports the creative and cultural industries of West Yorkshire to be environmentally sustainable.

Prior to co-founding SAIL, Jamie spent 11 years at Opera North in Leeds as a Technical Manager and engaged in various freelance roles within the music, live events, and theatre sectors. During his tenure at Opera North, he voluntarily spearheaded the organisation’s sustainability efforts, culminating in winning the “Best Newcomer” at the 2019 Creative Green Awards.

At SAIL, Jamie has contributed as the sustainability partner to significant cultural events, including LEEDS 2023 and Calderdale 2024, and is leading on the sustainability partnership with Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture.

Additionally, Jamie develops sustainability and carbon reduction strategies alongside theatres, event spaces, and local government bodies, is a qualified Carbon Literacy trainer, is on the productions committee of the Theatre Green Book and the directors and advisors’ group of Museum Development North.

Tamara is a UCL graduate and has 20 years experience working in the fashion industry, as a fashion editor and brand consultant, as well as uniquely working in Parliament.  She is the secretariat for the only two All-Party Parliamentary Groups for the fashion and textile industry, the APPG for Textiles and Fashion and the APPG for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, acting as the bridge between fashion and policy. Tamara is an LPIP Fellow of University of Birmingham and a Commissioner for the UK Trade and Business Commission.

Sir Peter Bazalgette is Co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council. Previously he led a 2017 independent review into the UK’s creative industries. He also chairs the Council of the Royal College of Art. From 2013 until 2017 he chaired Arts Council England.

Peter is a Senior Independent Director on the board of Saga plc and also sits on the board of the children’s animation company, Acamar. From 2016 to 2022 he chaired ITV, and previously served on the board of Channel 4. He spent many years as a TV producer, devising several internationally successful formats.  He became chief creative officer of Endemol and was later President of the Royal Television Society.

Sir Peter has also been a non-executive board member of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and currently chairs the Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction Book Prize Trustees. He also chaired the steam museum, Crossness Engines.

He’s currently on the board of Department for Education and previously performed the same role for DCMS.

Peter’s book about the business of TV formats, Billion Dollar Game (Time Warner), came out in 2005, and in 2017 he published The Empathy Instinct (John Murray) which explores the power of storytelling in the arts.