Current members

David Bryan CBE - Chair

David is Founder/Director at Xtend (UK) Ltd., an organisation development consultancy. He has a long history of work on organisational change and diversity in the public, voluntary and arts sectors. He is the Chair of Brixton House, Battersea Arts Centre and Creative Lives (UK). He is a member of the Mayor of London's Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm and a trustee of Dunraven Educational Trust and was made a CBE for his services to the Arts.

Abdul Shayek

Abdul Shayek

Abdul is Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Tara Arts and founder of Fio, a Cardiff-based theatre company working across the UK and internationally. Abdul is also an opera director with WNO and has worked with ENO. He is a former Creative Associate of National Theatre Wales. Abdul is a Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow (2013-14), vice-chair of the National Alliance for Arts in the Criminal Justice System, as well as being a trustee of mid-wales dance company Impelo and No Fit State Circus.

Angela Chan

Angela Chan is a diversity consultant and academic specialising in inclusive innovation. She has worked in the UK television industry for over 20 years, most recently as Head of Creative Diversity and Special Projects at Channel 4. 

Angela is currently Head of Inclusion at StoryFutures, an immersive storytelling centre based at Royal Holloway University. She serves as an advisor for the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.

Caroline Grewar

Caroline Grewar

Caroline Grewar is Interim Programme Director at V&A Dundee, responsible for the strategic leadership of public programme across exhibitions, learning and education, and partnership with UNESCO (City of Design, Dundee). Having worked in the culture sector for almost twenty years, Caroline began her career at the British Institute of Florence, Italy. She then joined V&A South Kensington, working across capital projects, major exhibition delivery and international touring exhibitions.

Declan Keeney

Declan Keeney is Professor (Chair) of Screen Technologies and Innovation at Ulster University and Director of the Ulster Screen Academy. His work is at the forefront of skills and workforce development in support of a converging screen industry. As Director of Research, Development and Innovation at 'Studio Ulster’, his research represents £91.5m worth of live grant-based research and development investments in emerging technologies for screen production.

Elena Schmitz

Elena Schmitz

Elena has worked in senior roles in the Welsh arts sector for the last 15 years. Based in Cardiff, she is currently Development Manager at NoFit State Circus, the UK’s leading large-scale contemporary circus company. Previously, she was Head of Programmes at Literature Wales and has worked for Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art, Wales Arts International, g39 Gallery and Chapter Arts Centre. Elena came to the UK from Germany in 2004 as part of her MA in British Studies at Humboldt University.

Emma Dabiri

Emma Dabiri’s work spans academia, media, and the arts. She is an internationally bestselling author of two books; What White People Can Do Next and Don’t Touch My Hair. Emma is a research associate at SOAS and a final year PhD researcher in Visual Sociology at Goldsmiths University. She has been published widely, and has presented numerous documentaries. Emma sits on various boards including the Wellcome Trust Anti-Racism Expert Advisory Group and is a Trustee of Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

Katy Shaw

Katy Shaw is Professor of 21st-century writing and publishing at Northumbria University and Director of the UKRI/AHRC Creative Communities programme. Her research includes diversity and inclusion in the creative industries (the subject of her 2022 TED talk) and the redistribution of the creative industries from the capital as part of the ‘levelling up agenda’. She is the author of The Case for Culture that set out policy recommendations, many of which have since been adopted by UK government.

Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp

Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, FRSA

Kenneth is currently working as a Freelance Arts and Culture Consultant. From 2007 to 2016, he was Chief Executive of The Place, and from 2018 to 2020, Director of The Africa Centre. During a 25-year career as a performer, choreographer, teacher and director, he danced with London Contemporary Dance Theatre and other leading companies. Kenneth is a Patron of Akademi, and The Place, and a Trustee of Sir Matthew Bourne’s dance company New Adventures, and the Chineke! Foundation. 

Kerry Kyriacos Michael MBE

Kerry is a British Cypriot. He leads Kyriacos And Company, a production company making TV, Film, and Theatre. He’s chair of MENA Arts UK, which empowers talent connected to the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding area. He was Artistic Director & CEO of Theatre Royal Stratford East for 13 years, forging new work from diverse voices and winning 2 Olivier awards. He was Artistic Director of The Year in 2018, awarded the Freedom of the City of London and made an MBE for services to the Arts.