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.
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 is 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 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.
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.
Natasha Trotman is an equalities designer whose practice explores mental difference and reframing mainstream notions of equality, equity, diversity and inclusion. She has worked with neurodiverse communities and people with varied abilities, including dyspraxic and autistic persons. Natasha is a co-production strategic implementation panel member (pan-disability, pan-impairment) for local government and sits on a local authority inclusive design review panel.
Sandeep Virdee OBE is the Artistic Director of Darbar Festival, an annual celebration of Indian classical music. He has a passion for photography and video and has produced 75 TV programmes for Sky Arts. He has also produced international exhibitions on the Sikh dharam at the V&A Museum in London and for the Parliament of World Religions (Melborne). He has carried out sewa to capture the major kar sewas of Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar (1997-1999) and other key Sikh shrines.
Xiaowen Zhu is an author, lecturer and currently the Director of esea contemporary, the UK’s only non-profit art centre specialising in platforming artists and art practices that identify with, and are informed by, East and Southeast Asian cultural backgrounds. With an international career spanning Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, London and Berlin, Zhu has organised numerous contemporary art exhibitions and has been listed as one of Apollo magazine’s 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific Thinkers.
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.
Rafi Gokay Wol is Director at the arts and talent management company HarrisonParrott where he heads the international projects and tours department. He has led a wide array of cultural exchanges and strategic partnerships in over 60 countries, promoting, developing and generating opportunities for creative talents, arts institutions and digital collaborations. Rafi is a Member of the DCMS UK-China Advisory Group and former Trustee of the National Foundation for Youth Music.