Jude Kelly is the South Bank Centre's new Artistic Director and Chair of Culture and Education for London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. The award-winning theatre director recently staged Leonard Bernstein's On The Town for the English National Opera and The Importance of Being Earnest with Ridiculusmus at the Barbican.

Jude has a 26-year career founding various theatres and arts centres. She became the first Artistic Director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, the country largest regional theatre. She also has directed over 40 productions for stage and screen and received the OBE for services to the theatre. In 2002 she founded Metal to champion the need for continual investment in artistic investigation and the creative process.

Jude is much in demand as a commentator and spokesperson for the arts, having represented Britain within UNESCO on cultural matters, served on the Arts Advisory Committee for Royal Society of Arts, and jointly chaired with Lord Puttnam the Curricula Advisory Committee on Arts and Creativity. She is Chair of Common Purpose International Trust, Board Member of the British Council, member of the London Cultural Consortium, and Visiting Professor at Kingston University and Leeds University.