About LIFT
Board of Directors
Patricia Brown
Pat Brown is the Chief Executive Officer of Central London Partnership, a public private sector partnership, now chaired by Lorraine Baldry, which brings together key London companies such as KPMG, Tesco and LWT together with central London boroughs and other organisations including the London Tourist Board, the Metropolitan Police and London Central Learning and Skills Council.
She started her career in planning at Merseyside County Council before moving into public relations in the early 1980s at the GLC and then with the London Research Centre. She serves on the Arts & Business London Advisory Group; is a trustee of Interchange Studios, a north London arts and social services charity; and is on the London Advisory Panel of the New Economic Foundation Time Bank initiative.
Josephine Burns
Jo Burns is co-Director of BOP (Burns Owen Partnership) and a founding member of the original partnership. She leads BOP's work on strategic planning and research in culture and the creative industries, including programme design and evaluation, regeneration and master-planning, and organisational development.
She has led on research and strategy projects for several RDAs, including extensive work for NWDA and SWRDA; business support and development projects across the UK, including Manchester and Sheffield; cultural regeneration planning for places as diverse as Salford, Coventry and Oxford; and evaluation projects with high profile clients such as the British Council and the UK Film Council.
Having worked as a consultant since 1991 being formerly the Director of North West Arts, she is the Chair of FOCI, an influential national network on the creative industries and regularly chairs and presents at conferences and events nationally and internationally. She is a governor of the Royal Northern College of Music, Chair of WAC, and a member of the Creative Industries Advisory Panel for the British Council.
Bernard Donoghue
Bernard Donoghue is Head of Government and Public Affairs at VisitBritain where he is also responsible for VisitBritain's support for the successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic bid. He has previously held a number of policy, campaigning and communications positions in the House of Commons and House of Lords, for the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, the National AIDS Trust, disability organizations, and for the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
He is Deputy Chair of TIER, the Tourism Industry Emergency Response Group, and a member of the UK Government's Rural Affairs Taskforce and COBRA, the Government crisis communications network.
In addition to his roles as Chair of London charity Young@Now and President of its sister US organisation, Young@now.inc, he is a Trustee of Centrepoint and the World Wide Fund for Nature-UK, and a Board Member of Marketing Manchester and The Tourism Society. In 1995 he was appointed to be a member of HRH The Princess Royal's Advisory Group, and in 2002 to be a member of HRH Prince William of Wales's Advisory Group.
A former Chair of the British Youth Council, London Youth Matters and the Commonwealth Youth Forum, he was also the first Chair of the Youth Forum of the United Nations and a Trustee of the National Youth Agency. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts (FRSA), Member of the Tourism Society (MTS), and Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR).
Amelia Fawcett – Chair
Amelia Fawcett is a Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley International's European operations, based in the London office, responsible for development and implementation of the firm's business strategy.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, she worked for the US law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, first in New York then in Paris. She joined Morgan Stanley in London in 1987, was appointed Vice President in 1990, an Executive Director in 1992 and Managing Director and the Chief Administrative Officer for the Firm's European operations in 1996. In 2002 she was appointed Vice Chairman and continues to report to the Chairman. She is a member of the European Management Committee and the Boards of Directors of the Firm's major European operating companies and chairman of the European Audit Committee.
She is a member of the Court of the Bank of England (and Chairman of the Bank's Audit Committee), Deputy Chairman of the National Portrait Gallery (and Chairman of the Gallery's Development Board), a member of the Council of the University of London and Chairman of the Audit Committee, and a Director of the Board of Business in the Community, the National Maritime Museum (Cornwall), and a Trustee of the Young Foundation.
A British and American citizen, she was awarded the CBE in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for services to the finance industry and the Prince of Wales' Ambassador Award in 2004.
Manisha Ferdinand
Manisha was appointed in March 2009 and is Senior PR Manager at Sky Arts.
Stella Hall
Stella Hall was appointed Creative Director of the Culture 10 Programme in Newcastle Gateshead in 2005 after five years as Director of the Belfast Festival at Queens. Her role includes developing and devising new, world-class cultural events and festivals and, working with strategic partners across the region, building a long-term infrastructure to sustain cultural activities in the future.
She has extensive experience in managing large-scale arts projects including a previous role as Director of Warwick Arts Centre and having organised the ceremonies for the Manchester Commonwealth Games. She played a key role in Manchester's successful bid to be the 1994 City of Drama, and was the Royal Court Theatre's Barclay's New Stages Festival Director. Founding Artistic Director of the renowned Green Room Arts Centre in Manchester she is also former Director of the Merseyside Festival of Comedy. She is currently a Board member of the Royal National Theatre and has chaired many major committees for the Arts Council and Regional Arts Boards.
John Newton
John Newton has had an influential career in the field of enterprise software. As a serial entrepreneur, John has worked in start-up companies that have eventually grown into large, successful software companies, most notably Documentum, the leading content management firm bought by EMC in 2003 recently for $1.6B. Recently, John has started a new firm Alfresco, to take advantage of the emerging and disruptive field of open source software, which has grown to a global scale through the free downloading of software and source code over the internet.
Having worked in the software industry in both Silicon Valley and Europe for the last 25 years, he has invented a lot of concepts now generally used in data and information management in large enterprises. In addition, he has had an active role working and collaborating with senior IT executives in pharmaceuticals, finance, manufacturing, and media industries throughout Europe and the United States. John also has very strong connections in the venture capital and software industries.
Emma Peters
Emma joined the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in March 2004 as Corporate Director, Development & Renewal. Bringing together planning, economic development, housing and strategic property, Emma oversees an integrated and comprehensive regeneration service for the borough, seeking to ensure that Tower Hamlets meets its full potential as a vibrant city district for the 21st Century.
Emma led on the production of a new Housing Investment and Regeneration Strategies and has taken forward a comprehensive approach to the new planning system with new Development Plan Documents. Key challenges for the borough that Emma’s directorate is working on include the preparation of detailed new land use plans to guide sustainable growth and investment in the borough; and ensuring that local residents and businesses have the necessary skills and support to harness the opportunities available from this growth, including the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games.
Emma is a town planner by profession with a background also in regeneration and housing development, and was previously Head of Planning and of Development for the London Borough of Lewisham. In this role she worked on a number of key development projects in the borough including the renewal of housing, the Depford creative business enterprise zone, the Stirling Prize winning Laban Dance Centre and the comprehensive regeneration of Lewisham town centre.
Donna Thomson
Donna comes to LIFT with a background in professional theatre, theatre education, social policy and disability advocacy. She holds degrees in theatre, education and applied drama (Central School of Speech and Drama). Donna is married to Jim Wright, High Commissioner for Canada to the UK and with her family, has lived in Moscow, Washington DC and London as well as in Ottawa.
Donna’s son Nicholas inspired her to become a disability activist and passionate about issues related to social justice. She is the international advisor for the Canada based social inclusion thinktank Plan Institute, sits on the board of Plan UK and is on the policy planning committee of Women for Women International UK.
Anne Torreggiani
Anne became the first chief executive of Audiences London in 2003, growing the agency and establishing it as an important resource to the cultural sector. She was LIFTs Marketing Director from 1998 – 2002. She has also been director of marketing in several progressive arts companies (including West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Theatre Royal Stratford East), and a consultant, facilitator and speaker in audience development and strategic marketing.
She has worked with many arts and heritage organisations, with a particular interest increasing access and the development of audience-focus as an organisational strategy. She has been a member of 7 boards; her current directorships in addition to LIFT are The Albany Deptford and London Artists Projects.