Diana Hiddleston
Co-Chair
Diana Hiddleston is a freelance arts consultant. Former lives include training as a musician, stage management and company management. Having held senior posts at Music at Oxford and the Oxford Playhouse, Diana was also General Manager at Garsington Opera and a director of The New Art Centre, which holds the trusteeship of the Hepworth Estate. Consultancies have included the Pegasus Theatre, The Watermill Theatre, National Film School and Tenebrae Ensemble. She is also on the Development Board at NYT. Trusteeships include THE ART ROOM, a therapeutic space for school children identified at risk and ITHACA, which centres on the unwaged and homeless.
Clare Parsons
Co-Chair
Clare Parsons is Chair of Lansons which she co-founded over 30 years ago. During three decades running Lansons, she has been actively involved both in the PR industry as a whole and with the not-for-profit sector. Leading the agency’s international business, Clare is Global Chair of PROI Worldwide, the first woman in its 49 year history.
Over the years, she has advised on committees for CIPR, is currently on the advisory panel for the National Business Awards, is a trustee of arts charity HighTide, and serves on a wide range of industry and NFP committees. Clare also mentors professionals in the arts.
Clare was recognised with the Stephen Tallent Award by the CIPR for her contribution to the PR industry, where she was also made a Fellow, The Holmes Report SABRE Award – Outstanding Individual Achievement, and was featured as a Real Business Magazine’s Top 100 Women UK Entrepreneurs alumni.
Emily Anstead
Emily is Head of Trusts and Foundations at the British Library where she leads on capital and revenue fundraising and strategy for trusts and foundations. Emily was previously Head of Trusts at the National Theatre. Her previous experience includes roles at LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) and Liverpool Culture Company as part of 2008 European Capital of Culture. She has a BA (Hons) in English Literature from University of East Anglia and an Open University Diploma in Winning Resources and Support accredited by the Institute of Fundraising. She was part of the June 2017 Clore Leadership Short Course cohort. Emily was one of the founding members of the Arts and Culture Trusts Forum which shares best practice with trust fundraisers from non-for-profit arts and cultural organisations from around the UK. She is a former Board Member of Company Three – formerly known as Islington Community Theatre – whose work has been seen at the National Theatre, Royal Albert Hall, on Channel 4 and the BBC. Emily is Co-Chair of the British Library’s Gender Equality Network, working with the Library’s senior leadership to better embed equality at every level at the BL. She is a former Trustee of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights.
Tim Clark
Chair
Tim is a former Senior Partner of Slaughter and May. He is Chair of WaterAid and the Economist Trust. Tim is a Senior Adviser at G3, Hudson and Sandler, Chatham House and CER and a member of the Advisory Board of Uria Menendez. He is also a member of the Development Committee of the National Gallery. He was formerly a member of the Board of Big Yellow Group and the National Theatre and of the Audit Committee of Wellcome Trust.
Jan Hall
Jan is the Founding Partner of No 4, a leadership and Board advisory business working with CEOs and Chairmen. Her clients are typically global businesses, mainly but not exclusively major FTSE 100 companies, where she acts as a key advisor helping them to ensure they are keeping their focus on the key issues for the future. She does this principally through Board Effectiveness Reviews where she highlights potential enablers and unblockers through confidential conversations with Board and Executive Team members. Jan also supports and coaches those moving into, or new to, the Group CEO role.
She founded the JCA Group in 2005, which for 10 years was one of the UK’s leading Board and Executive Search firms, based in the UK and working globally. Jan and her Partners sold the business to Heidrick & Struggles in 2016, when she then became their UK Chairman and Co-Leader of their European CEO and Board Practice until she left in 2018.
Personally Jan spent 22 years as one of the UK’s very top headhunters, working on major CEO and Chairman appointments for JCA Group, and prior to this for eight years as a Senior Partner at Spencer Stuart.
Before joining the world of search, Jan was the European CEO of a UK based PLC and before that, the CEO of a successful private company, having started her career as a Brand Manager for a global business
She has 35 years experience of being a Non-Executive Director for PLC and Not for Profit Boards. She is currently a Trustee of RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute), and is also a qualified Executive Coach with both the Tavistock Institute and with Meyler Campbell.
She studied Biochemistry at Oxford University and was awarded an OBE by the British Government in 1996 for services to business.
Jan has also published two books; “Changing Gear”, which explores transitions for senior leaders (published in 2021) and “Dementia Essentials”, a guide for loved ones who find themselves to be carers(an updated version of which was published in 2020).
Stephanie Renouf
Stephanie is a development, fundraising and marketing communications consultant specialising in the cultural, heritage, attractions and arts sectors.
Previous roles include Head of Development at the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich where she secured significant acquisitions and developed individual and corporate giving circles; Communications Consultant for the launch of the ground-breaking Lightbox gallery and museum in Woking, which went on to win the first Art Fund Prize.
Her early career as the co-founder of an independent public relations consultancy involved regional and national campaigns for clients including Tyco Matchbox, Savills, National Grid and BT.
Subsequently she became an executive search consultant for communications, retail and luxury brand clients with Norman Broadbent.
Stephanie has advised and worked for various charities and NFP organisations across Norfolk and Suffolk and was a volunteer on the successful Norfolk and Norwich Festival Gala fund-raising Committee.
She is a very proud member of the inaugural Suffolk Dog Day Committee which ran for more than a decade benefiting communities through the Suffolk Community Foundation, and a is Trustee of the Walberswick Common Lands Charity.
Leah Schmidt
Deputy Chair
Leah Schmidt is a founding Partner of The Agency (London) Ltd, an agency for writers and directors at the forefront of the theatre, television and film industry in the UK. Prior to founding The Agency, Leah was a Director at Curtis Brown Ltd for ten years. Leah began her career in the film industry in Los Angeles working at Lucasfilm Ltd. before moving into agenting in New York, at Rosenstone/Wender.
