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 Indian hospitality. Nick brings the board a range of fund-raising and commercial insights alongside his financial expertise and experience. He has been on the board of English National Opera since 2009, latterly as Deputy Chairman and Chair of Finance, where he reaches the end of his term in May. He is also a trustee of The Two Moors Festival and the Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust and 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 12 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.
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 and a tour to Prague and Brno of Martinů’s The Knife’s Tears. He was Artistic Director of Northern Ireland Opera from the company’s foundation in 2010 until 2017. His productions for Northern Ireland Opera included Don Giovanni, Tosca (winner of the 2012 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Opera), L’elisir d’amore, Der fliegende Holländer, Macbeth (with Welsh National Opera), Salome, Agrippina, Hansel and Gretel, The Turn of the Screw (with Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre, Moscow) and Noye’s Fludde (part of the London Cultural Olympiad). His has directed for other companies including the Young Vic, Aldeburgh Music, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Pimlico Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Early Opera Company, Nederlandse Reisopera, Bergen National Opera and National Opera Studio. In 2012 Oliver was nominated for the UK TMA Achievement in Opera Award for his leadership of Northern Ireland Opera, and in 2013 was nominated for the International Opera Award for Best Newcomer (Director).
Richard Mantle OBE Opera North 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.
Stuart Murphy English National Opera / Co-Vice Chair Expand Stuart Murphy is ENO’s Chief Executive Officer. Stuart grew up in Leeds, where his passion for classical music was sparked by playing the clarinet in Leeds Youth Orchestra and Leeds Youth Opera. He began his career at BBC Manchester, worked in Africa on the BBC’s Great Railway Journeys with Professor Henry Louis Gates Junior, and became the country’s youngest TV Channel Controller at the age of 26, running comedy and music channel UK Play. Stuart subsequently became Channel Controller of BBC Choice, then devised, launched and ran BBC Three in 2003. While at BBC Three he commissioned shows from Gavin and Stacey to Bodies and developed a reputation for developing new talent as well as for commissioning innovative, award-winning programming. Particularly notable was Flashmob The Opera, a live opera from Paddington Station in October 2004, which brought together opera choruses from across the country with the BBC Concert Orchestra and was watched live by almost 100,000 viewers. This was followed, in April 2005, with Flashmob The Opera: Meadowhall, a specially adapted version of the Faust legend, again bringing opera to new audiences in an unexpected setting. BBC Three went on to win both Channel of the Year and Best Entertainment Channel. After two years as Creative Director at Two Four Productions, Stuart joined Sky in 2009 to run family channel Sky One. At Sky One Stuart brought to the screen numerous award-winning shows from Stan Lee’s Lucky Man to Mad Dogs, from An Idiot Abroad to Stella and from Modern Family to Flash. After two years of Stuart’s leadership, Sky 1 was named Channel of the Year for the first time in its 20-year history. In 2011 Stuart devised, launched and ran Sky Atlantic, bringing, among others, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, The Affair, Big Little Lies and Fortitude to UK screens. Under his tenure, he attracted many individuals to work with Sky for the first time, including Sir David Attenborough, Joanna Lumley, Dawn French, Idris Elba, Meera Syal, Matthew Perry, Kim Cattrall, Jon Hamm, Davina McCall, Melvyn Bragg, John Ridley and Sally Wainwright and numerous others. Stuart has sat on the board for A&E Networks International and Jaunt Virtual Reality Company.
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.
Peter Maniura Expand Peter Maniura is the Director of the IMZ Academy, which runs professional development courses for the Arts and Media sector. He is an award-winning tv producer and director with more than twenty years experience in music and arts broadcasting at the BBC and the EBU. He is also a digital media consultant and guest lecturer. His most recent role at the BBC was Project Director, Classical Archive and Orchestras Digital Strategy for BBC Music, which he began in April 2018. Prior to this, he was Head of Digital Development for BBC Arts covering festivals, events and performance across the art forms. He was also Commissioner for BBC Arts Online, which he launched in May 2014. Previously he was Creative Director and Curator of the new experimental BBC/Arts Council England digital online arts service ‘The Space’ which launched in May 2012 and which ended its pilot phase in October 2013. It promoted digital innovation and creativity in the arts. Passion and professionalism are the hallmarks of Peter's approach to the arts and to his own work. He strives to bring the widest possible audience to the arts, as a director and producer of documentary and live event programmes as well as though digital media. Many of his programmes have won major awards, including a Bafta and an International Emmy in 2006 for ‘Holocaust: a music memorial film from Auschwitz’, which he produced for BBC 2. He has had a long association with the EBU and directed Eurovision Choir from Gothenburg this summer. He is a member of the Royal Victorian Order – which was bestowed on him in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours in 2003 in recognition his work as Producer of ‘Prom at the Palace’ which marked Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. He is also a member of the Board of Opera North, which he joined in September 2013.
Gillian Newson Expand Gillian Newson spent several years working in the commercial sector in France and Belgium, before joining the Hong Kong Government’s Information Services Department as a Senior Cultural officer with special responsibility for the Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in Hong Kong. Invited to New York, she became part of the lead team on Britain Salutes New York Arts Festival before returning to the UK to take up management worldwide of the Kings Singers. In 1990 she joined IMG in London to manage and produce touring productions and artists including the Hampton Court Music Festival, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Company, Sylvie Guillem, English National Ballet, and headed the Dance department for ten years in London and New York. Today she acts as a consultant for international touring and co-productions, and continues to represent major companies. A former Board member of the National Youth Music Theatre and the Society for Promotion of New Music she currently serves as a Board Member of the National Opera Studio, as well as the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation (UK).
Lorna Parker Co-Vice Chair Expand Lorna Parker is a senior advisor at CVC Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm, and is a Non-Executive Director of Indivior plc, where she chairs the nominations and governance committee. As an independent consultant as well as in conjunction with Manchester Square Partners, she conducts board-effectiveness reviews for UK public companies. She has an active not-for-profit portfolio: she is a Trustee of the Royal Horticultural Society, where she chairs the nominations, appointments and governance committee, and of the National Opera Studio. Until recently she was a senior advisor at BC Partners, 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’s executive career was primarily in executive search, as a partner at Spencer Stuart for nearly 20 years. Lorna has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Stanford Business School, where she was a Harkness Fellow.