Trustees

John is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds non-executive directorships in the telecoms, e-commerce and investment management sectors.
He is Chairman of the Trustees of The National Gallery and The Royal Drawing School and a Trustee of the Chatsworth Settlement, the Julia Rausing Trust and several other charities. John read Modern Languages at Oxford University and is a Fellow of Merton College and a member of the Chancellor’s Court.

He is a Fellow of The Society of Antiquaries and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. John acts as an ambassador for the homelessness charity Depaul International and a Deputy Lieutenant for West Sussex.

Dennis Chang is a Director at Bolton & Quinn, an international public relations consultancy for arts and culture. Since joining the company in 2012, he has worked on diverse campaigns for global clients with a special emphasis on the performing arts and the visual arts. Previously he worked at London’s Southbank Centre overseeing the press operations of UK’s largest classical music programme, coordinating more than 10 partner organisations. Dennis grew up in Taiwan and Canada and attended university and music school in the USA.

Andrew Comben is Chief Executive Officer of Britten Pears Arts.

Previously he was Chief Executive of Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival from 2008-2024, having also worked in classical music for Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Music (Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme) and Young Classical Artists Trust.

At Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival he established the Guest Director model for Brighton Festival (with artists such as Anish Kapoor, Laurie Anderson, Kate Tempest, David Shrigley and Lemn Sissay) and developed a new vision for the organisation as a year-round centre of artistic activity and involving all areas of the community in the performing arts.

Ted Hodgkinson is Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, Europe’s largest arts centre. Since taking up the role, he has launched a range of new initiatives, from the Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective to Indie Night, which champions independent publishing. He leads the programming for the London Literature Festival and a range of cross-arts projects and festivals featuring world-renowned authors and cultural icons.

His previous experience encompasses roles at Granta and the British Council, overseeing programming in the Middle East and South Asia. He has judged numerous awards, including the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and was chair of judges for the International Booker Prize in 2020. He is a trustee of English PEN and New Writing North. He has twice been named among The Bookseller’s 100 most influential people in publishing and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has contributed to a range of publications, including the New Statesman and the Times Literary Supplement and co-edited, with the Icelandic author Sjón, The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from the North.

Frith Kerr is an award winning graphic designer and founder of Studio Frith, celebrated for its original work and exceptional clients. ‘the go-to graphic designer for creative clients’ New York Times. Her studio has produced acclaimed work for some of the world’s leading cultural institutions, brands and artists.

Monika works at the intersection of design, research and education. She has spent two decades in art schools, teaching contextual studies to designers, artists, curators and historians. Currently teaching at Central Saint Martins, she has had senior roles at the Royal College of Art and external roles across the UK, Europe, USA and India.

This cross-disciplinary experience now feeds in to consultancy, facilitation and chairing funding bids. She is often commissioned to speculate on contemporary issues through public speaking, writing and convening talks. Her books include ‘Limited Language: Re-writing Design’ and ‘100 Women Architects’, out soon.

Saadi Soudavar is Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Saadi is Managing Director at Deutsche Bank where he runs European Equity Capital Markets. As a long-time supporter of arts organisations and avid art collector, Saadi’s current and previous roles within the culture sector include being a member of the Tate Photography Acquisition Committee, and a trustee of the Soudavar Memorial Foundation, which supports exhibitions, publications and scholars of Persianate culture. He was also a producer of the feature film, Frontier Blues, which premiered in the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival in 2009, and won the FIPRESCI award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Kully Thiarai is an experienced Theatre maker and Arts Executive with extensive experience of commissioning, producing, and directing work nationally and internationally.She has created a diverse range of work that spans communities, cultures and performance styles; made large scale epics, new plays and created work for non-theatres spaces.

Kully was most recently Creative Director and CEO of LEEDS 2023 –delivering over 1700 events as part of a £24m international year of culture in 2023 for the city of Leeds.

Prior to that Kully was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of National Theatre Wales. Her 30-year career also includesbeing the founding Director of Cast (opening the £22 million performance venue in Doncaster as the cultural living room for the town), Artistic Advisor creating the artistic vision for Contact Theatre Manchester which centring young people at its core, and the Artistic Director of Leicester Haymarket Theatre, Theatre Writing Partnership and Red Ladder Theatre Company.

Kully is currently Chair of new writing company PainesPlough and Co-Chair of Slung Low along with Alan Lane, a trustee of The Art Foundation and an Honorary Fellow of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.