AL Board members

Margaret Sheehy (Chair)
Margaret Sheehy has wide experience of community engagement and participation practice, of the development of arts and cultural policy and of events management. She has a doctorate in Community and Celebration. She established the Diversity Unit and the London Decibel programme and the first two Creative Partnerships London zones for Arts Council England, London. She now works as a project director and a consultant/practitioner in cultural policy. 

Julie Weston (Vice-Chair, Secretary)
Julie is Director of Human Resources at the British Heart Foundation. She has previously worked in board and senior positions in HR and organisational development in the National Health Service, and the Pension Protection Fund.  She is also a trustee of a mental health charity.

James Duncan
James is a corporate partner at Winckworth Sherwood. James specialises in corporate governance, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, funds and financing in the public, semi-public and private sectors.   He regularly advises organisations participating in public funded regeneration and housing joint ventures between the public and private sectors.  Some examples of James's work include advising a UK Government office in one of the largest privatisations and subsequent listing undertaken by the UK Government; advising a Dover community organisation for a proposed Big Society acquisition of the Port of Dover, lead corporate adviser to a global investment bank on the establishment of a $500 million international agribusiness fund and acting for a number of London's largest hedge fund managers on the sale of minority stakes to the investment banks.  

Jake Eliot
Jake Eliot is policy officer focusing on socially excluded groups at the National Housing Federation. The National Housing Federation is the trade body for housing associations in England and exists to support and promote the work that housing associations do and campaign for better housing and neighbourhoods.  Prior to joining the Federation, Jake was a consultant in strategy and impact at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, where he advised third sector organisations on strategic planning, impact reporting among other topics. He has several years experience of working in the third sector in different policy, research and project management roles.

Claire Eva
Claire Eva is Head of Marketing for Tate. She oversees marketing strategy, audience development, brand strategy and research for the Tate organisation as a whole, and directs campaigns at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. Before joining Tate, Claire managed the marketing for the Hayward Gallery and National Touring Exhibitions in London, as well as press and marketing for Arnolfini in Bristol.

Aretha George
Aretha is a Policy Advisor (Participation and Learning) at the Heritage Lottery Fund.  Aretha trained as an artist and is experienced in delivering and project managing arts and community projects with a particular interest in heritage and cultural diversity.  Her previous roles have included delivering community participation projects for LB Tower Hamlets, working for Arts Council England, London and more recently the University of London, Institute of Historical Research where she set up and managed a national volunteering and schools learning programme as part of a wider project encouraging local people to engage with local history.

Kingsley Jayasekera
Kingsley is Director of Marketing and Communications at Sadler's Wells. He previously worked for the theatre advertising and marketing agencies Dewynters, McCabes and M+H as well as Digital Classics and Onlineclassics.com, London Bubble and Rambert Dance Company.

Caroline Jenkinson 
Caroline is presently responsible for Arts and Tourism in Camden, her remit covers all creative activities, the film location and outside broadcast service, and management of a Council based venue. Previously she worked in the Strategic Relations Unit at the London office of ACE and for the London boroughs of Hackney, Brent and Lambeth running arts departments delivering festivals, strategic arts developments, education activities and public art commissions. Originally trained as a painter and printmaker at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Caroline worked as an arts consultant and education tutor across London, after being an artist in residence for Hammersmith and Fulham's Community Education Service.

Hilary Jennings                                                                                                                 Hilary is an experienced consultant working across the creative and cultural and education sectors. She has extensive experience in setting up and facilitating partnerships and creating and delivering strategic projects. The focus of much of her career has been supporting and promoting learning, skills and more recently leadership development in particular through network developments. She is also involved in community and artistic approaches to the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil.

Vivienne Moore
Vivienne headed the Audience Development Unit at the Arts Council until 1999 managing a portfolio which included the New Audiences Programme, the national network of audience development and marketing agencies, market research and intelligence, strategic development projects and marketing training. Prior to this her varied career had encompassed working for national opera and theatre companies, festivals, regional arts boards and local authorities. She is now a garden and landscape designer.

Kelly Smith                                                                                                                                                       Kelly was the Finance Director at IPD and is a qualified chartered accountant (Coopers and Lybrand). She originally joined Research International (a subsidiary of the WPP group) in their group office, as the group management accountant and spent 3 years there before joining the BBC World Service as the European Business manager. Kelly then returned to WPP as the European Finance director of Ogilvy Adams and Rhinehart (Ogilvy Mather - PR). Kelly then moved back to Research International as the Asia Pacific finance director, based in Singapore. Covering, China, Taiwan, HK, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and NZ, Kelly mainly worked on start ups and establishing a regional presence. She then moved back to Europe to take the role of Finance Director of Continental Europe and Africa, where she worked primarily on restructuring the business to improve margins and business performance. Kelly then moved to IPD, where she is also responsible for HR after gaining a Masters in Human Resource Strategies while at RI, and being responsible for rolling out their talent review process throughout Europe.

Daniel Wain
Daniel is a freelance learning & development consultant, trainer and coach.  Prior to establishing Daniel Wain Consulting Limited in August 2007, he was Worldwide Director of Learning & Development at Research International.  A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), with a Masters (with Distinction) in Human Resource Development (HRD), Daniel is a frequent conference speaker: he won the Best Presented Paper Award at the 2006 Conference of the Market Research Society (MRS), and his 2008 appearances include the World HR Congress and a return to the MRS Conference.  He also contributes to a variety of magazines and journals, currently writing regular columns for both Research and People Management.  An actor and published playwright, he ran Strut & Fret Theatre Company for many years, enjoying 5-star sell-out seasons in London and Edinburgh, and recently co-founded Rattling Tongue, which aims to debut later this year.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Full Member of the MRS, the Society of Authors, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain and Equity.

Steve Mannix
Steve has worked in the arts, lobbying, campaigning and disability sectors for over 25 years. For the past three years he has been Cultural Programme Advisor for London 2012. Whilst working on the Games he was responsible for establishing several of the major projects within the Cultural Olympiad such as Artists Take the Lead, Big Dance, and particularly Unlimited, the world’s largest commissioning programme for disabled and deaf artists. Earlier this year Steve left 2012 to pursue a freelance career and supports organisations with business planning, strategy, training, fundraising and producing. Prior to working for 2012, Steve was Chief Executive at Shape, the national disability arts development agency. This post followed a variety of other senior management positions with Stonewall, Battersea Arts Centre, Graeae Theatre Company and The Albany Empire. Steve is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the British American Project and the Mercers Company.