What Next? Leadership Group
Dave Moutrey (pronouns he/him) – Director of Culture for Manchester City Council
Dave is Director of Culture for Manchester City Council and is responsible for advising the Council on policy and strategy for culture and working closely with the Cultural Leaders Group on joint working and other collaborative initiatives.
Dave is the former Chief Executive of HOME. In his role he conceived and led both the merger of Cornerhouse and Library Theatre Company and the £25m capital project to create HOME which has attracted almost 1m visits per year since it opened. Dave has worked in Manchester in leadership roles in the arts since 1984 previously at Abraham Moss Centre Theatre, Arts About Manchester and Cornerhouse. He was awarded a Doctor of Arts honoris causa by the University of Salford is a Fellow of the RSA, a member of the Chartered Management Institute, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Dave is also an advisor to the British Council and holds a number of nonexecutive roles on not-for-profit boards
Suzanne Alleyne, Creative Strategist and leader of Neurology of Power
Suzanne Alleyne is a Cultural Thinker. Collaborative working is at the heart of everything she does. She is driven by the belief that considering people, profit and purpose at all levels of business, benefits both organisations and wider society. Her business navigates the intersection of culture and commerce underpinned by 25 years experience supporting and consulting for high profile international organisations and individuals. Her portfolio of clients includes Barclaycard, Channel 4, V&A, Wellcome Trust and Roundhouse. Within the arts she has an impressive track record working with UK writers and poets on their professional development and associated shows. She is an inaugural Arts Council England Changemaker, through which she was Commercial, Brand and Strategy Director at Apples and Snakes. She is a Fellow of the RSA, a Cultural Animateur for Signifier, and a Visiting Research Associate and guest lecturer at King’s College London.
Holly Lombardo, Development Director at Tysers Live Festival & Event Insurance Broker, Director of World Fringe
Holly is a cultural sector leader with 25 years’ experience in the creative, festivals and events sector. Formerly a senior manager at the Edinburgh Fringe, founder of the Brighton Fringe, and long-standing Director of the National Rural Touring Forum, she also established World Fringe, a global network of 300 festivals. A recognised change maker, network specialist, and advocate for creative industries, Holly is known for her conscious leadership and ability to build ecosystems that drive growth, innovation, and international collaboration.
Socials are: @WorldFringenet @HollyPLombardo
Kate McGrath – Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Fuel
Kate is Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Fuel, which she co-founded in 2004. Fuel is a leading independent producing organisation in the UK, collaborating with theatre makers to create adventurous and socially engaged performance for audiences across the UK and internationally. Highlights include Inua Ellams’ Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre, UK and international tour), David Greig’s Touching The Void (West End, UK and international tour), and Khalid Abdalla’s Nowhere (UK and international tour).
Kate is currently a Trustee of Clore Leadership Programme (since 2020), a Board Director for What Next? (since 2020), a Board Director for ARTCRY (since 2024), and Visiting Fellow at Hertford College at the University of Oxford. In 2025, Kate was awarded an OBE for services to theatre.
Jamie Beddard, Joint Artistic Director of Diverse City, and Lead Artist for Extraordinary Bodies.
Jamie is currently leading on and writing the Diverse City production, All We Have. Previous projects include two Extraordinary Bodies shows; Waldo’s Circus of Magic and Terror (co-writer with Hattie Naylor) tour nationally spring 2023, and Delicate, (writer and co-director) toured nationally autumn 2022. He was also involved in co-directing a large-scale outdoor film and community project on Dartmoor as part of Green Spaces Dark Skies in 2022, and co-directing Extraordinary Bodies’ outdoor, inclusive circus performance, ‘Splash!’.
As a performer Jamie has played the title role in the Elephant Man, the Leader in The Messiah at Bristol Old Vic, the role of Mathias in The National Theatre’s production of The Threepenny Opera, and performed in ‘Weighting’, a large-scale outdoor circus show created by Extraordinary Bodies.
He has previously been Agent for Change at The New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, Diversity Officer (Arts Council), Associate Director (Graeae Theatre Company) and Editor of ‘Disability Arts in London’ magazine (DAIL). Additional directing credits include ‘The Last Freakshow’ (Fittings), ‘Can I Be Frank With You’ (‘Datco’) and ‘The Trouble With Richard’ (Graeae). Numerous acting credits include Quills, I.D, All the King’s Men, Wonderful You (Film/TV) and Ubu, Alice in Wonderland, Flesh Fly (Graeae), 15 Seconds (Traverse) and Waiting for Godot (Tottering Bipeds).
Jamie is on the board of New Wolsey Theatre, Level Playing Field, and Metal. He is a Clore Fellow and a patron of Face Front.
Alexandrina Hemsley – Freelance Creative Practitioner and Consultant
Alexandrina Hemsley’s choreographic, writing and facilitation practice is shaped by and insists on embodied ways of voicing realities resulting from systemic, racial, gender-based and ableist marginalisation. The breath of their creative approach also sees them invested as much in discourse and organisational structures as choreographic or aesthetic enquiries. Alexandrina is an Associate Artist at Cambridge Junction, Dance Ireland International Associate 2020, and a board member of Chisenhale Dance Space.
Website: www.alexandrinahemsley.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexandrinahem Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/alexandrinah/
Alison Clark – Head of Culture Sport & Tourism, Durham County Council
Having been told by a careers teacher at 16 ‘people from places like this don’t do jobs like that’, Alison has had a 25-year career in arts and culture leadership. She is currently Head of Culture Sport and Tourism at Durham County Council. Previously she spent 15 years with Arts Council England, the last 6 as director of the north west and national director for Combined Arts where she raised profile and investment across outdoor arts, festivals, arts centres and social arts practice, and designed and lead the influential Ambition for Excellence programme. She is a fellow of the DeVos Institute of Global Arts Management at the University of Maryland.
Instagram is @alisoncj
Dan de la Motte – Freelance as Producer, Curator, Performer and Activist.
Dan de la Motte is an independent creative practitioner, working across performance, heritage and visual art projects and specialising in Queer work. He sits as an elected councillor for the national governing body of Equity trade union and is a creative climate leader with Julie’s Bicycle. Dan is currently a PhD candidate in performance-based co-creation with young people as a form of political activism with Queen Mary university and Fevered Sleep, where he is also an associate artist.
Social media is @Dandelamotte
Lora Krasteva is Artist | Cultural Producer | Activist Founder of Global Voices Theatre
Lora is an artist, cultural producer and activist. She creates multi-disciplinary, devised, socially and politically engaged works that connect communities, artists, institutions and decision-makers. One of her latest creative projects, Becoming British, is a six hours durational, task-based performance installation interrogating national identity from the perspective of 1st generation migrants in the UK.
In the past, Lora has worked with Arts & Homelessness International advocating for a place for creativity in homelessness provision and founded Global Voices Theatre, a female, non-binary and immigrant-led company introducing international plays in the UK. Lora is a founding member of Migrants in Theatre, the movement advocating for a better representation of 1st generation immigrants. She was born in Bulgaria and lives in Sheffield where, besides her creative practice, she also works as a personal and professional development coach.
For more info about Lora’s work visit www.lorakrasteva.com and follow on @lorakrasteva
Keisha Thompson – Programme Manager for Legacies of Enslavement Programme at The Guardian
Keisha Thompson FRSA is a Manchester based writer, performance artist and producer. She is currently the Programme Manager for Legacies of Enslavement Programme at The Guardian. She is Co-Chair of the Independent Theatre Council, a trustee of Olympias Music Foundation and recipient of the DARE Art Prize 2024 from Opera North and the University of Leeds in association with National Science and Media Museum and Yorkshire Contemporary.
Social media: Instagram: @shebekeke https://keishathompson.com/bio/ Twitter: Keke_Thom Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebekeke
Elizabeth Lynch MBE, Freelance Arts Advisor, Leadership coach and Co-chair What Next? Wandsworth
Elizabeth Lynch specialises in generating creative, purposeful collaborations between artists and communities, previously as a director/producer, now as an advisor, researcher and coach. As founding Director of Roundhouse Studios, she pioneered its youth-led programming. Recent projects drawing on her engagement experience include Wandsworth London Borough of Culture 2025, Government Art Collection, National Gallery, Wellcome Collection, Action Space, LAMDA and Creative People and Places. She is an Associate Research Fellow in Contemporary Theatre at Birkbeck University, Chair of Theatre-Rites and Co-chair of CADA (Creative Ageing: Development & Agency). She established What Next Wandsworth in 2013.
Jeanie Scott, Director, Dance Base
Jeanie Scott is Director of Dance Base, a research and development consultancy based in Edinburgh. She has over 25 years’ experience working across the arts, heritage and creative industries as a Director and CEO, and as a funding and organisational development consultant. Jeanie led the Review of Fair Work in the creative and cultural sectors in Scotland in 2022 on behalf of the Scottish Government’s Cultural Strategy, and she conducted research around Industry Standard Rates of Pay with Queen Margaret University on behalf of Creative Scotland. Recent projects also include developing new cultural strategies with regional partnerships in both Angus and Moray; supporting organisational development and change in a range of creative organisations and festivals; and providing interim-director support. She published The Illustrated Fair Work Guide for the Creative and Cultural Sector in 2023 (with editor Heather Parry and illustrator Maria Stoian). Jeanie is a Clore Fellow, a Fellow of the RSA, and is an accredited coach and a facilitator.
Lilli Geissendorfer, Director, Theatre Green Book
Lilli is an independent consultant, producer and facilitator, working at the intersections of culture, climate and change. She is Director of Theatre Green Book (UK), supporting the performing arts sector to transition to net zero, and works with a wide range of cultural and creative organisations and programmes towards a transformative future.
Before going freelance in 2024, she was Deputy Director of the Creative Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), and Director of independent funder Jerwood Arts, where she channelled £10 million of funding to over 1000 early-career artists from all art forms across the UK in five years and designed and delivered sector-change and artist development programmes such as the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries.
Lilli is Co-Chair of Fuel Theatre and a Trustee of Projekt Europa, a mentor with Arts Emergency, a Speaker for Schools and an Ambassador for the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board.
Reyahn King, Freelance Consultant, Facilitator, Grant assessor and Executive Coach
Reyahn is a consultant and facilitator who brings a wealth of senior and strategic leadership experience to What Next? most recently as Director of Heritage Properties, National Trust for Scotland. As Chief Executive of York Museums Trust for seven years, Reyahn led the organisation to success with a collaborative organisational vision and resilience through Covid. Reyahn has also held positions as Head of Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands, Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool and Head of Exhibitions and Interpretation at Birmingham Museums.
Della Hill, Operations & Social Impact Manager, National Theatre Wales
Della specialises in project management and business development to improve the strategic & operational direction of a range of organisations across the UK. She is currently the Operations & Social Impact Manager at National Theatre Wales, Consultant and Speaker at people make it work, Trustee of Spread the Word and a WJCB Toolkit Associate. Della was previously Creative Lead Literature Wales and Diversity and Inclusion Lead at Chwarae Teg. She has managed and delivered large-scale initiatives that reflect her passion of addressing and dismantling structural inequalities alongside advocating for high-level social change within Creative, Arts & Culture, Education and Equalities Sectors.
David Lockwood, CEO, The Arts Development Company, What Next? Dorset
David is CEO of The Arts Development Company, a social enterprise based in Dorset that specialises in enabling the strategic delivery of culture. Before this, David ran Trowbridge Town Hall in Wiltshire, where he reimagined the historic building as a centre of culture and community, securing £8 million from central government. And before that, he jointly set up and led the Bike Shed in Exeter, which served delicious cocktails and supported emerging and small scale performance.
Leila D’Aronville – Independent Producer and Consultant, Founder North East Cultural Freelancers and Creative Producer at Northern Roots
Leila has worked in the cultural sector in the North East for over 20 years; most recently founding North East Cultural Freelancers which advocates and works on behalf of cultural freelancers and independents in the North East of England. Leila also leads Northern Roots – a music development agency which presents a diverse programme of music and supports marginalised artists through mentoring and platforming opportunities. Leila has a passion and drive to put people at the heart of the cultural sector, developing equity and encouraging collaboration and collaborative leadership. She has an aspiration for
the North East of England to becoming the best place to be a cultural worker in the UK.Leila D’aronville – What Next? Newcastle and Gateshead, Freelancer, North East Cultural Freelancers
Dave O’Brien – Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries, University of Manchester
Since completing his PhD on urban cultural policy in the Department of Sociology at the University of Liverpool, Dave has written extensively on key issues in the cultural and creative economy. His most recent book, Culture is bad for you, was co-authored with Orian Brook and Mark Taylor. His policy work includes the ground-breaking Measuring the Value of Culture report, he was a co-author on the Panic! report, as well as the Creative Majority and Making the Creative Majority reports. He has twice been an advisor to the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee inquiries, and has recently worked with the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee on their At Risk: Our creative future report.
He was also a UKRI Fellow at the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport. He is part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, and is a member of the AHRC’s Advisory Board. He is the co-editor of the Palgrave Sociology of the Arts book series, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cultural Economy, and the host of the New Books Network’s New Books in Critical Theory channel.