Chair and Trustees

Melanie brings extensive leadership experience in heritage, arts, culture, and visitor engagement, currently directing strategy and business growth at Historic England. Her role involves advancing impactful change, expanding income streams, innovation, and enhancing services across the organisation both internally and externally. Previously CEO at Shakespeare North Playhouse, Melanie was instrumental in launching this pioneering cultural venue as a catalyst for community regeneration through arts and heritage. She also spent a decade as an Executive Director at National Museums Liverpool, shaping strategy, commercial growth, and visitor experiences. Her earlier commercial roles with Everton FC and Blackburn Rovers FC underline a strong track record in commercial, events, and engagement. Additionally, Melanie serves on the Business and Enterprise Board for Liverpool City Region and as a Senior Independent Panel Member for DCMS.

Jo has spent her whole career as a financial professional in the not-for-profit sector, and has always been a keen advocate for the funding streams of sustainable enterprise. She has previously held roles as Chief Financial Officer at York Minster, including responsibility for IT, and Finance Manager at the Hepworth Wakefield art gallery, responsible for establishing the finance systems, processes and team from scratch.

With nearly two decades of leadership experience across London’s most prestigious institutions, including the Royal Ballet and Opera, National Theatre, Barbican Centre and ATG Entertainment, Gabriela brings extensive expertise in visitor experience and operational excellence. She now leads on strategic initiatives to enhance customer engagement and commercial operations at the House of Commons, and is also currently pursuing an MBA.
 

Steve has led the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre charity since 2015, following regional and national roles in public engagement and education at London Transport Museum, Imperial War Museums, the Postal Museum and London Metropolitan Archives. He can confirm that yes, people often get VERY excited when they hear where he works now, and yes, it IS a really fun job!
 

Following an 11 year tenure at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, Matthew was inspired to support organisations with commercial development and visitor experience strategy. Matthew works with a variety of organisations including The Alnwick Garden and Kynren 11Arches. He was named Rising Star and Overall Winner in the 2022 Cultural Enterprises Awards.

Ann Morrow combines architecture, world building, and design with business acumen to envision and create unique, compelling experiences. She has driven decades of experiential innovation across cultural, institutional, and entertainment sectors, recently as Global Head of Creative Development for Walt Disney Imagineering. Ann Morrow is a celebrated creative recognised as one of Blooloop’s Top 10 Immersive Influencers and XLIST’s 100 Most Creative Visionaries in Experiential, and received a THEA Award for Outstanding Achievement on Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. A frequent speaker and thought leader, she has been featured in Forbes, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times. Having consulted for future leaning companies and foremost cultural institutions such as National Geographic, The RSC, Yale University, and Lucasfilm, she combines insights from the cutting edge of emerging experiential possibilities with a deep understanding of how people engage.

Zak is Co-CEO at Birmingham Museums Trust and was previously Head of Transformation at Bristol City Council for the Culture & Creative Industries service. When not solving problems where people, culture and technology meet, Zak can be found spending time with his family or riding his motorcycle.

Anthony is the General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees at the V&A, specialising in commercial contracts, intellectual property, information and technology law. Alongside his role at the V&A Anthony is a Consultant Solicitor at Keystone Law, a virtual full service law firm.

Kingston is responsible for innovating and leading customer touch points throughout BMT. His directorate includes all Trading Activity, Marketing, Digital, IT and Visitor Operations. He is at the forefront of ensuring that BMT can grow and evolve to best tell the stories of its collection and city as the cultural anchor for Birmingham.

As Director of Commercial Enterprises, Caroline sets the strategic direction for all commercial income streams across the National Trust for Scotland. Having previously worked in high street retail for over 20 years in various leadership roles, it was the opportunity to combine her commercial skills and knowledge with raising vital funds to support the charity that first attracted Caroline to make the move into the cultural and heritage sector. Caroline is also Vice Chair of the Board at Craft Scotland. Outside of work, she can be found travelling the UK and abroad for music gigs or providing a taxi service for her teenage son Joe!

Graeme moved into the heritage sector after holding senior posts in the private sector for both private and public companies. He has overseen many key initiatives at the Museum of the Home including the overhaul of finances and systems now delivering real time reporting. Additionally, he has been at the forefront of securing a major capital project ensuring the historic Almshouses are retained for future generations and allowing a transformation in the way the museum displays the collections and the stories they tell. As part of the senior leadership team, Graeme is involved in shaping the commercial development of the museum about which he is passionate. He is currently initiating an integrated data capture and ticket system to access real time metrics across all aspects of the museum.

Iain is a Visiting Professor at Newcastle University and a consultant working across the cultural sector. He is a trustee of the Amber Side Collection, of the Association for Cultural Enterprises and of the Tyneside Cinema. He is an Advisory Board member at Art UK and at the Living Archive. He has written and lectured extensively, in the UK and abroad, on cultural policy, museums, archives and heritage.

Laura has been CEO of the Postal Museum since June 2018. In this role she is responsible for ensuring that the museum fulfils its mission and is open to as wide an audience as possible while also remaining financially sustainable. Previously Laura spent eight years as CEO of Tate Enterprises, the revenue generating company belonging to Tate Galleries, having originally joined Tate in 1999 prior to the opening of Tate Modern. In that role she oversaw publishing, retail, licensing and product development for all four Tate galleries.