The Lowry, Salford, Reveals New Appointments To The Board Of Trustees

The Lowry, Salford has announced the appointment of nine new Trustees to its board.

The appointments follow a significant recruitment process undertaken by the arts organisation. A skills audit was delivered to help shape the recruitment with the objective of identifying the skills and attributes needed for the future success of the organisation, and to increase diversity and representation. The Lowry has embraced the opportunity to add a wider range of voices and experience to its board and welcomed the new members last week.

The new Trustees are Nazir Afzal OBE, Jatin Aythora, Roli Barker, Jaiden Corfield, Phil East, Fiona Gibson, Katharine Hammond CBE, Daniel Kasmir and Andrew Wylie.

They join the chair Sir Rod Aldridge OBE, Lifelong President Felicity Goodey OBE, and current board members Mike Blackburn OBE, Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter, Ian Currie, Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett, Jane Frost CBE, Jeremy Glover MBE, Councillor Bill Hinds, Baroness Beverley Hughes, and Tom Stannard.

Sir Rod Aldridge, Chair of The Lowry, said: “We are delighted to welcome a superb new cohort of Lowry trustees - they all add great abilities to our already excellent board. We look forward to harnessing both their skills and their passion for culture in helping to shape The Lowry's future development”.

New board member Nazir Afzal OBE, was Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and formerly Director in London. He was Chief Executive of the country's Police & Crime Commissioners and most recently, National Adviser to the Welsh Government. During a 30-year career, he has prosecuted the most high profile cases in the country and advised on many others and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence. He is the Chancellor of The University of Manchester, Chair of Hopwood Hall FE College, sits on the Independent Press Standards Organisation and the National Police Chiefs Ethics Committee, is Independent Member of Oxfam's Safeguarding & Ethics Committee & Trustee of Association of Safeguarding Partnerships and WOW (World of Women) Foundation. He was appointed the first ever independent Chair of the Catholic Church's Safeguarding Agency.

Jatin Aythora serves as the Director of BBC Research & Development, where he plays a crucial role in driving the organisation's technical vision and fostering innovation within the BBC and the wider news and media industry. In this capacity, he supports and shapes the BBC's mission ambition and charter obligations. Before joining the BBC, Jatin served as the Head of Enterprise Architecture at Centrica. During his tenure, he played a key role in developing ideas for home automation products, leading to the successful establishment of Hive Home and Local Heroes. These ventures offer a diverse range of connected home products and energy services. Apart from delivering ground-breaking and industry defining technologies that contribute to social good and in the benefit of humankind, Jatin is interested in design, art and philosophy and is often found with canvas painting abstract art.

Roli Barker has worked for non-profit organisations for over 13 years delivering projects for social impact charities and arts organisations such as Shelter, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, National Youth Theatre and Hull 2017 City of Culture. Prior to joining the non-profit sector, she worked in the events industry as a project manager delivering national and international corporate events. Roli is currently a Director at Big Life Group and is a non-executive director at Jigsaw Homes. Her interest in ensuring equity and belonging in the workplace, has led her to developing anti-racism strategies and leading EDI groups.

Jaiden Corfield is an activist turned social entrepreneur with over a decade of experience within the social impact sector. Most importantly, he's a proud Salford lad. As the founder of a consultancy network supporting organisations to realise greater social purpose, Jaiden has worked alongside some of the world's largest organisations to create and sustain positive change across education, philanthropy and policy. From co-designing the UK's first youth-led supplementary school to championing some of the UK's boldest and most disruptive funds, Jaiden brings a depth of professional and lived-experience. Jaiden was first introduced to The Lowry as a young person on one of the Arts for Social Change programmes in 2014. In 2019, Jaiden founded The Outliers Project to support young Salfordians to recognise and achieve their potential. He has since advocated tirelessly to see more young Salfordian's grow alongside the city and access everything that Salford has to offer.

Phil East became the Chief Executive of Salford Foundation in 2018, having served as Deputy CEO since 2009. During this time, he has had senior management responsibility for the development and delivery of a wide range of projects, with a particular interest in helping those facing multiple disadvantage and in social mobility. In particular, he has developed projects tackling serious youth violence; new approaches to learning and progression into work; domestic abuse; and preventative interventions with young people. He sits on a wide range of multi-agency boards in Salford and Greater Manchester. As CEO, Phil has also led significant changes in terms of business strategy and planning; workforce engagement and wellbeing; and infrastructure improvements. Prior to 2009, he worked for Local Authority Youth Services in the North West and South West and in the voluntary and community sector in Cheshire.

Fiona Gibson is the Chief Executive of Capital Theatres in Edinburgh. Her role spans the leadership of three busy Edinburgh city centre venues who together are Scotland's largest theatres charity with a mission to inspire a lifelong love of theatre. It provides an award-winning creative engagement programme supporting people living with dementia, care experienced children, diverse communities and arts talent development. Prior to this, Fiona was CEO of the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres, the Business Director of the Octagon Theatre, Bolton and outside of her theatre day job in the North West of England, Fiona was also the Board member for culture on the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership, a member of the Greater Manchester Culture Steering Group and chair of the Greater Manchester Visitor Economy Board. Previous to the arts, Fiona's career spanned 22 years with Accenture. As a trustee of the Accenture Foundation Board, she managed a range of community investment projects, culminating in her appointment as the HRH Prince of Wales Ambassador for Responsible Business in the North West of England.  Fiona is passionate about making a difference through the broader 'life benefits' she knows the arts brings.  A vibrant theatre with relevant and quality work on stage not only builds joy and aspiration, it also makes a significant difference to health and wellbeing, employability, community cohesion and the regeneration of place.

Katharine Hammond CBE is a senior civil servant with more than 20 years' experience in Whitehall across a variety of departments including the Cabinet Office, Home Office and FCDO.

Daniel Kasmir gained extensive experience of HR in a number of organisations including Shell, Manpower, FNZ, Xchanging and BDO. He has worked in Private Equity as both an adviser and within portfolio companies for General Atlantic, JC Flowers and Bain Capital.  Daniel joined TalkTalk in 2019 where he is responsible for People and Procurement. He is also Chair of the Employment Board at HMP Thorncross.

Andrew Wylie is a Partner at the international engineering consultancy Buro Happold. He is a UK Executive Director and has responsibility for their portfolio of UK Culture Sector projects and the business response to the climate emergency. He is a Chartered Engineer and has experience of leading multi-disciplinary design teams on a range of complex new build and refurbishment projects including The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Factory International, Manchester Jewish Museum and the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. Andrew has completed a Master's degree in Inter-Disciplinary Design for the Built Environment at the University of Cambridge, and is also a member of the Association of British Theatre Technicians.  Andrew's passion for sustainable design and construction has led him to co-author the award-winning Theatre Green Book which has now been translated into six languages. Following the success of the Theatre Green Book Andrew co-authored the Arts Green Book and he remains an active member of the Theatre Green Book steering group.

The Lowry is delighted to welcome the new trustees and is looking forward to working with both current and new board members to shape our artistic aims, industry engagement and community vision over the coming years.

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