Board Members

Margaret Sheehy (Chair)
Margaret Sheehy has wide experience of community engagement and participation practice, of the development of arts and cultural policy and of events management. She has a doctorate in Community and Celebration. She established the Diversity Unit and the London Decibel programme and the first two Creative Partnerships London zones for Arts Council England, London. She now works as a project director and a consultant/practitioner in cultural policy.

Alex McGowan (Vice-Chair, Secretary)
Alex is Associate Producer at the Unicorn Theatre in London. He was worked in theatre for 15 years, mostly in marketing but more recently in general management.  His career started off at the MacRobert Arts Centre in Scotland before moving to Northern Stage in Newcastle and then in 1998 to the Young Vic in London. Before his current position at the Unicorn, Alex worked on a freelance basis for Tamasha Theatre Company, the Almeida, Hampstead Theatre and Dash Arts amongst others.

James Duncan
James is a partner in the Wedlake Bell Corporate team. After qualifying in a large firm in Sydney, James moved permanently to the UK at the end of 2000 and has been in City practice ever since. Some examples of James' work include working closely with a UK Government office in one of the largest privatisations and subsequent listing undertaken by the UK Government; lead corporate adviser to a global investment bank on the establishment of a $500 million international agribusiness fund; acting for one of the biggest rail networks in the UK on their largest M&A transaction to date, advising a consortium bidding to acquire London City Airport and acting for a number of London's largest hedge fund managers on the sale of minority stakes to the investment banks.

Jake Eliot
Jake Eliot is a consultant in strategy and impact at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, working as part of a small team providing advice information and direct consultancy support on strategic planning, impact reporting, user involvement and managing change to voluntary and community organisations. Jake has several years experience of working in the voluntary sector in a variety of policy, research and project management roles.  At the Performance Hub, he managed a number of research and development projects on performance improvement in the sector and wrote guidance on strategic planning and understanding impact. He also led the partnership's policy work with statutory and independent funders. Prior to this he worked in policy for NCVO, Tools for Schools, an educational social enterprise, and as a research assistant in the House of Lords.  From January 2009 Jake will be Policy Officer at the National Housing Federation

Claire Eva
Claire Eva is Head of Marketing for Tate. She oversees marketing strategy, audience development, brand strategy and research for the Tate organisation as a whole, and directs campaigns at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Before joining Tate, Claire managed the marketing for the Hayward Gallery and National Touring Exhibitions in London, as well as press and marketing for Arnolfini in Bristol.

Ana Gaio
Ana is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Policy and Management at City University. Ana comes from a strong arts marketing and audience development background having taught these practices on Arts Management courses. She has also been involved in research and applied research projects in the cultural sector, such examples include Community Events as Catalysts for Social and Economic Development and devising a Local Cultural Strategy for London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Ana also brings experience of working with other Boards and organisational change development.

Aretha George
Aretha is a Policy Advisor (Participation and Learning) at the Heritage Lottery Fund.  Aretha trained as an artist and is experienced in delivering and project managing arts and community projects with a particular interest in heritage and cultural diversity.  Her previous roles have included delivering community participation projects for LB Tower Hamlets, working for Arts Council England, London and more recently the University of London, Institute of Historical Research where she set up and managed a national volunteering and schools learning programme as part of a wider project encouraging local people to engage with local history.

Kingsley Jayasekera
Kingsley is Director of Marketing and Communications at Sadler's Wells. He previously worked for the theatre advertising and marketing agencies Dewynters, McCabes and M+H as well as Digital Classics and Onlineclassics.com, London Bubble and Rambert Dance Company.

Caroline Jenkinson 
Caroline is presently responsible for Arts and Tourism in Camden, her remit covers all creative activities, the film location and outside broadcast service, and management of a Council based venue. Previously she worked in the Strategic Relations Unit at the London office of ACE and for the London boroughs of Hackney, Brent and Lambeth running arts departments delivering festivals, strategic arts developments, education activities and public art commissions. Originally trained as a painter and printmaker at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Caroline worked as an arts consultant and education tutor across London, after being an artist in residence for Hammersmith and Fulham's Community Education Service.

Vivienne Moore
Vivienne headed the Audience Development Unit at the Arts Council until 1999 managing a portfolio which included the New Audiences Programme, the national network of audience development and marketing agencies, market research and intelligence, strategic development projects and marketing training. Prior to this her varied career had encompassed working for national opera and theatre companies, festivals, regional arts boards and local authorities. She is now a garden and landscape designer.

Daniel Wain
Daniel is a freelance learning & development consultant, trainer and coach.  Prior to establishing Daniel Wain Consulting Limited in August 2007, he was Worldwide Director of Learning & Development at Research International.  A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), with a Masters (with Distinction) in Human Resource Development (HRD), Daniel is a frequent conference speaker: he won the Best Presented Paper Award at the 2006 Conference of the Market Research Society (MRS), and his 2008 appearances include the World HR Congress and a return to the MRS Conference.  He also contributes to a variety of magazines and journals, currently writing regular columns for both Research and People Management.  An actor and published playwright, he ran Strut & Fret Theatre Company for many years, enjoying 5-star sell-out seasons in London and Edinburgh, and recently co-founded Rattling Tongue, which aims to debut later this year.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Full Member of the MRS, the Society of Authors, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and Equity.

Julie Weston
Julie is Director of Human Resources at the British Heart Foundation. She has previously worked in board and senior positions in HR and organisational development  in the National Health Service, and the Pension Protection Fund.  She is also a trustee of a mental health charity.