Professor Closs Stephens is Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at the University of Wales Aberystwyth where she has taught within both Drama and Television since 1975. She has been in turn a member of the Broadcasting Council for Wales of the BBC, a member of the S4C Authority and Director of the Thomson Compliance Unit on monitoring S4C. In 1998 she was appointed by DCMS to Chair S4C, a post which she held for eight years. During this time, she also served as Adviser on Restructuring the Arts Council of Wales. She is also a non-executive director for Assembly Government's civil Service Management Board.

Professor Closs Stephens has been a member of the Council of the National Library of Wales, a member and Vice-Chairman of the Welsh Language Board, a Governor of the University of Glamorgan and Chair of Chwarae Teg,a company devoted to the economic development of women. She is Currently Governor of the British Film Institute and Chair of its Audit and Governance, Chair of the Wales Advisory Committee of the British Council and Trustee of the Bevan Foundation. She is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Carmarthen, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a Vice-President of the Cardiff Business Club and was awarded a CBE in 2001. She was appointed in April 2006 to chair a Review on behalf of the Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport which looks at the structural relationship between the Wales Assembly Government and Arts Council Wales.

Elan joined the British Council Board on 21 November 2006.