Nicholas Allan Chair Expand Nicholas Allan was Managing Partner of Boyer Allan Investment Management LLP (a specialist Asian fund management company) from 1998 to 2012. Prior to setting up Boyer Allan he had senior roles with Kleinwort Benson in London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. His principal business interest now is in Raas Hotels in India. Nick brings the board a range of fund-raising and commercial insights alongside his financial expertise and experience. He was on the board of English National Opera for 11 years, latterly as Deputy Chairman and Chair of Finance. He is a trustee of The Grange Festival and The Two Moors Festival. He is also a director of Lindsell Train Investment Trust.
Gini Gabbertas MBE Expand During a 35 year career in the international events business, Gini led the pioneering trade fair company, Fairs & Exhibitions Ltd, which from the 1980’s onwards was instrumental in creating high-profile industry events in the Middle East. Working in close collaboration with Government and business leaders in the Gulf and wider Asia region, she specialised in delivering trade opportunities for a broad range of industries such as construction, power generation, water technology, healthcare, and education, ultimately focusing on a 20-year programme developing the Dubai Airshow which continues to be one of the world’s leading forums for the aerospace and civil aviation sectors. In 2002 Gini was awarded an MBE for services to industry and exports. Since stepping down from her business in 2009, Gini has immersed herself in the world of opera and classical music and now supports several performing arts organisations, whilst being keen to help young artists develop their careers. Other key interests are property development and her voluntary work includes hands-on involvement fundraising for charitable organisations.
Aidan Lang Welsh National Opera Expand Aidan Lang is General Director of Welsh National Opera. He was previously General Director of Seattle Opera. He served as General Director of New Zealand Opera from 2006 to 2013, and has also held positions of artistic leadership at Buxton Festival, Glyndebourne, and Opera Zuid. As a freelance director, Lang staged the first Brazilian production of Wagner’s Ring at the historic Teatro Amazonas in Manaus. Other noted productions include Count Ory (Welsh National Opera), Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Lisbon), The Turn of the Screw(Salzburg) and the British premieres of The Magic Fountain by Frederick Delius (Scottish Opera) and Cornet Christoph Rilke’s Song of Love and Death by Siegfried Matthus (Glyndebourne).
Alex Reedijk Scottish Opera Expand Alex Reedijk joined Scottish Opera as General Director in February 2006, following four years at the helm of The NBR New Zealand Opera. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts. Having worked for many opera companies and festivals across the world, including Scottish Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and the original Garsington Opera, he became New Zealand Festival’s Deputy Executive Director with particular responsibility for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which made its first highly successful visit out of Edinburgh to Wellington in 2000. Over his 16+ years at Scottish Opera the company has flourished, bringing opera performances to over 45 communities across Scotland every year. There have also been an array of new initiatives for young people, and for people living with Dementia, including the world’s first Dementia Friendly opera performances in 2016. He has also worked closely in partnership with Music Director Stuart Stratford to sustain and develop a very strong commitment to both 20th century opera and new commissions. In November 2011, Alex was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and Chair of the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock.
Oliver Mears Royal Opera Expand English director Oliver Mears is The Royal Opera’s Director of Opera. He joined The Royal Opera in March 2017. Oliver studied English and history at Oxford University and began his career assisting playwright Howard Barker. In 2004 he co-founded London-based opera company Second Movement and directed numerous site-specific productions for the company, including several UK stage premieres. He was founding Artistic Director of Northern Ireland Opera from 2010 until 2017. His productions for Northern Ireland Opera included Tosca (winner of the 2012 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Opera), Der fliegende Holländer, Macbeth (with Welsh National Opera), Salome, Agrippina, Hansel and Gretel, The Turn of the Screw (also at Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre, Moscow) and Noye’s Fludde (London Cultural Olympiad/Beijing/Shanghai Festivals). In 2021 he made his Royal Opera debut with a new production of Rigoletto. His has directed for other companies including the Young Vic, Norwegian National Opera (L’Elisir D’Amore), Aldeburgh Music (Albert Herring) Magdeburg Opera (Aida), Opera North, Scottish Opera (Eugene Onegin), Pimlico Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera, Bergen National Opera (Don Giovanni) and the National Opera Studio.
Sir Richard Mantle Opera North / Co-Vice Chair Expand Richard is General Director of Opera North. His first appointment in the opera field was as Deputy Managing Director at English National Opera until 1985 when he joined Scottish Opera as Managing Director. He spent 3 years working in opera in Canada before returning to the UK in 1994 to join Opera North. Richard is a Fellow of the Leeds College of Music and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music by the University of Leeds and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is on the Board of the National Opera Studio and a member of the Advisory Council of the Music Department at York University. He is a member of the General Synod of the Church of England and a Deputy Lieutenant in the county of West Yorkshire. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2013 for services to music.
Stephen Langridge Glyndebourne Expand Stephen Langridge is Artistic Director of Glyndebourne. Before this, he was Director of Opera at Gothenburg Opera. Stephen studied drama at Exeter University. Particularly noted for his work in the field of opera, he has directed numerous productions worldwide, including at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburg Festival, Stockholm Royal Opera, Tokyo Opera City, Bregenz Festival, Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos Lisbon, Den Norske Opera Oslo, Opera di Roma, Grange Park Opera, Greek National Opera, Volksoper Wien and at the operas of Bordeaux, Malmö and Angers-Nantes. A strong advocate of contemporary music, he has directed several world premieres, including productions of major new works for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Aldeburgh Festival, Nationale Reisopera, and for Glyndebourne. He is also well known for his large-scale theatre work in unusual settings - including Bernstein’s West Side Story and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in UK Prisons, and Ngoma, a multi-racial music and theatre project in South African townships - and for his work with integrated groups of disabled and non-disabled young people with Share Music Sweden. He regularly leads training, development, and education projects for opera companies and orchestras across Europe.
Jenny Mollica English National Opera Expand Jenny Mollica is Interim Chief Executive Officer of the ENO and London Coliseum. Prior to this position, she was the ENO’s Director of Strategy and Engagement between June 2020 to August 2023. Jenny joined the ENO in 2020 from the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama and during her time as Director of Strategy and Engagement, she was responsible for leading organisational strategy, policy and partnerships, and also for the ENO’s learning and participation programme, ENO Engage. Over the past three years Jenny has worked closely with the ENO’s Board and Executive on the organisation’s strategic management, business planning and governance. Jenny has also led on the development of a range of new strategic partnerships in London and nationally. With a focus on expanding the ENO’s social impact, she has overseen the growth of the company’s ENO Engage programme, with more than 164,000 people across the country experiencing its programmes last year, either online or in-person. Highlights include creative health programme ENO Breathe, which received the RPS Impact Award in 2021 and is now available in over 86 NHS Trusts across the country. Jenny has also led on the creation of a number of new digital programmes at ENO, including as Co-Executive Producer on a new TV and broadcast project for Sky Kids and Sky Arts designed to introduce family audiences to opera for the first time. Prior to joining the ENO, Jenny worked at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama for just over a decade in a range of roles, including Director of Creative Learning, where she led on the development of a range of participatory arts programmes across music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film and literature. She is Chair of the Board of the Clod Ensemble and a Member of the Lord Lieutenant’s Cultural Heritage Council for London.
Dori Dana-Haeri Expand Dori Dana-Haeri has a wide-ranging experience of the strategic problems facing industries. After a career as a management consultant, she now has a portfolio of interests. Her portfolio includes advisor/board member to a number of organizations. These include: the investment committee of a significant corporate Venture where she performs strategic marketing due diligence; an early-stage Agri- tech company, advising them on how to go to market with their environmentally innovative products, a pre-IPO unicorn with a unique technology in Israel and -a global multi-family office and independent investment firm where she works on direct investments. She has sat for many years on the board of trustees of several charities in the UK and Africa. She was chair of the London Development and a Trustee of Maggie’s Cancer Care and a Trustee of the Persia Educational Foundation. Dori was the founder and General Partner of Eden Ventures an early-stage technology venture capital fund, and Executive Chairman of Above Wealth an innovative wealth management start up. Dori is the founder of DDH Consultants working with fortune 500 companies on growth and innovation.
Diane Henry Lepart Expand Diane Henry Lepart is the Founder and Managing Director of FEND Capital Partners Limited, which focuses on investments in scalable and advanced projects and technologies, primarily in agriculture, water and renewable energy, that sustain the environment and enhance life. Diane is also is an International Private Placement Consultant (Commodities and Real Estate), within a Global Affiliate structure, where her role is business development and transaction due-diligence, and a Senior Advisor to a small number of specialist international projects. Diane is a former RSA Advisor, and a former Board Member of the Museum of London. She was a GLA London wide Conservative Candidate for the Assembly and Mayoralty in 2000, and subsequently a Member of the GLA’s Cultural Strategy Group for London, and TfL’s Finance Committee. Prior to establishing FEND, Diane was a Vice President and the European Head of Asset Management Audit at Lazard. Diane has over 20 years of City based audit and consultancy experience. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales, a Chartered Fellow of the Securities Institute (UK) and a Fellow of the British American Project. Diane currently serves as a Board Member of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, a Main Board Member of the Hospital Club (a Vulcan Inc. Investment) and a Trustee of the MOBO Trust. She is married with two children and lives in London.
Antje Hensel-Roth Expand Chief People and External Affairs Officer at ICG, a global leader in alternative investments, Antje is responsible for leading both strategic human capital management with a particular focus on business diversification strategies, as well as communications and external affairs. She has led a comprehensive drive for excellence in leadership, talent management and diversity & inclusion. She possesses extensive experience in the global asset management industry, with a particular focus on alternative investments. She has been instrumental in delivering new business initiatives and driving diversification into new investment strategies as well as positioning ICG as an employer of choice for high calibre executives across all business lines globally. She also has led the charge on establishing an international charity programme designed to provide preparation and enhance access to the investment industry for disadvantaged young people. Prior to joining ICG, Antje was Global Co‐Head of the Investment Management Practice at Russell Reynolds Associates. Antje graduated from the University of Düsseldorf and holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. .
Lorna Parker Co-Vice Chair Expand Lorna has been conducting Board Effectiveness reviews for UK public companies for over ten years as an Advisory Partner at Manchester Square Partners and also as an independent consultant. In addition she is a Non-Executive Director of Indivior plc and was Chair of its Nominations and Governance Committee until 2021; a member of the Supervisory Board of PAI Partners SAS; a Trustee of the Royal Horticultural Society and Chair of its Nominations, Appointments and Governance Committee; and a Trustee of the National Opera Studio. Lorna’s executive career was primarily in executive search, as a partner at Spencer Stuart for nearly 20 years, where she created and led their private equity practice across Europe, co-led the legal search practice, was a member of the UK Board practice and was the UK Managing Partner. Until recently she was a senior advisor at CVC Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm, providing advice on portfolio company leadership, succession and recruitment. She previously held a similar role at BC Partners. Previously she was a Trustee of BC Partners Foundation, a Director of Future Academies, a Trustee of Place2Be and a member of the Royal Opera House Foundation Advisory Council. Lorna has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Stanford Business School.
Dr Paul Gilluley Expand Dr Gilluley qualified in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1991. He subsequently trained in psychiatry and was appointed Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist for Westminster in 2000. Dr Gilluley has worked in a number of clinical settings and also spent time working in NHS London Specialist Commissioning. He helped develop the Quality Network for Forensic Psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatry and went onto be specialist advisor in Forensic Mental Health to the Care Quality Commission. In 2012 he moved to become Head of Forensic Services at ELFT where in 2017 he became Chief Medical Officer. During the COVID pandemic Dr Gilluley provide clinical leadership in the roll out of the COVID vaccine across North East London. In July 2022 Dr Gilluley was appointed Chief Medical Officer at NHS North East London.