The non-profit organisation, which begins trading on 1st April 2015 when staff and assets will transfer from Cambridge City Council, has recently undergone a recruitment campaign to assemble its board, led by Chair Sara Garnham.
The first three trustees are confirmed as: Mark Boon, CEO of insurance brokers La Playa which specialises in creative industries; Brian Whitehead, founder of leading arts publication Arts Professional and Director of arts consultancy business Arts Intelligence; and senior strategic HR executive Judith Elliott. They will join two further board members who will be Cambridge City Councillors.
Cambridge Live’s board will eventually be governed by a board of 11 trustees who will also act as company directors. A second round of appointments will be made in January. Further details are available at www.cambridgelivetrust.co.uk
Sara Garnham, Chair of Cambridge Live said “Response to our first round of recruitment for trustees has been great, with some people already expressing a wish to get involved in the next round in the spring. We have been able to appoint a talented and enthusiastic initial team of voluntary trustee directors who will be working hard to ensure that the organisation is ready for curtain up on 1st April.”
About Cambridge Live
Cambridge Live will be operational from 1 April 2015 when the staff and assets will transfer from Cambridge City Council. Cambridge Live will be responsible for the successful stewardship of the long established Cambridge Corn Exchange and Cambridge Folk Festival and will also manage the delivery of a programme of outdoor events on behalf of the City Council. Cambridge’s cultural landscape is amongst the finest around having been voted the No.1 UK city for culture at the 2014 Condè Nast travel awards. The Cambridge Folk Festival has also recently been nominated for three UK Festival Awards and once again picked up a Greener Festival award for its environmental credentials. Cambridge Live will maintain the venues and Festival and operate them under a long term lease and funding agreement from Cambridge City Council, who will retain ownership of the assets. The day to day running of the organisation will be by a Managing Director and a team of approximately thirty five staff who will be employed by the charity. Cambridge Live is expected to have a turnover of some £5m per annum.
Mark Boon
Mark Boon is CEO of La Playa, an insurance broker that specialises in the creative sectors: media, performing arts; fine arts and technology – a company he co-founded in 1999. Having lived and worked in Cambridge for 30 years, Mark is an experienced and successful entrepreneur and businessman and that rare breed that has successfully managed to combine a passion for the performing arts with building a business. Mark is also one of the very few insurance professionals both licensed in New York State and an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute in London. A regular attender of the Corn Exchange and the City's major events such as Bonfire Night and The Big Weekend, he has a passion for the arts to the point where he even finds time to play bass in a rock band in his spare time.
Brian Whitehead
Brian has worked in the arts and cultural sector for 30 years in private, local authority and charitable cultural organisations before launching an arts publishing and consultancy business in the late 1990s. Prior to this, Brian was Director of Marketing for nine years at Derngate in Northampton, which went through the process of transfer from local authority control to charitable trust status successfully in the early 1990s. He is publisher of the leading trade journal, ArtsProfessional (www.artsprofessional.co.uk) and provides occasional consultancy services in the sector, having worked with numerous arts organisations across the UK and Ireland since moving to the Cambridge area 16 years ago. He is a keen sailor, traveller and amateur family tree sleuth.
Judith Elliott
A strategic HR specialist, Judith is a highly experienced HR and Learning & Development Professional with a proven and successful track record in developing and driving leadership, management and HR strategies within both SMEs and large organisations with global reach.
With over 20 years experience she has worked in a range of different sectors having also held a senior HR role at John Lewis Partnership. She is currently the Director of Econsulting Ltd which provides a "people management toolbox" with a range of e-learning and resources for managers.
Social media
Twitter: @camblivetrust
Facebook: facebook.com/cambridgelivetrust
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Contacts
Sara Garnham, Founding Chair of Cambridge Live:
sara.garnham@cambridgelivetrust.co.uk | 07773 397258
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