Cambridge School of Creative Industries Advisory Board

Rachel is currently interim Co-CEO and Creative Director at the Arts Theatre Cambridge.

Prior to this she was the Creative Director at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London and has been the CEO of Milton Keynes Theatre.

A producer and theatre consultant, Rachel has enabled and produced productions in London, in regional theatre and all over the world. She has worked extensively in both the commercial and not-for–profit sectors.

Justin has worked in classical music for over 30 years, with a career spanning orchestra management, artistic programming, and fundraising. He has held senior roles with leading ensembles including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and served as CEO of Southbank Sinfonia (now Smith Square Sinfonia), the UK’s foremost orchestral academy.

Since 2012, he has directed the Cambridge Music Festival, bringing acclaimed international artists to the city and broadening its scope to include classical traditions from regions such as West Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. He also programmes the chamber music series at Kettle’s Yard and has held roles with the Cambridge University Musical Society (Executive Director, 2014–17) and King’s College, Cambridge (Concerts & Festival Manager, 2021–24).
Justin served on the board of the Association of British Orchestras, where he chaired its Education Group, and on the Cambridge Arts & Cultural Leaders group. Since 2009, he has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

With a background in fine art and a Masters in digital entertainment systems, Laurence started his gaming career with Frontier in 2002. Since then, he has worked as lead designer on multiple projects, including Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit, Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, and Elite Dangerous.

In 2019, Laurence moved from the role of Game Director on Elite to Head of Design. In this capacity he supports and manages a team of around 40 game designers across multiple projects. While still actively involved with projects, he focuses on developing the department and the individuals within it. The department strives for excellence in communication, collaboration and design, breaking down silos between projects and departments, evolving and adapting to the ever-changing landscape.

In addition to this Laurence actively works to improve the connections and collaboration between education and industry.

Since 2018, Matt has been Artistic Director & CEO of Cambridge Junction, leading on the curation and production of theatre, dance, live art, circus, and artist development programmes.

During his tenure at Cambridge Junction, Matt has commissioned and co-produced more than 60 new projects, including Quarantine’s 12 Last Songs, Marikiscrycrycry’s Goner, Back to Back Theatre’s The Democratic Set Cambridge, Igor x Moreno’s Karrasekare, Bert & Nasi’s x ATRESBANDES’ It Don’t Worry Me, and Laura Murphy’s A Spectacle of Herself. Since early 2024, he is a co-lead of Create Cambridge, the city’s new cultural compact.

Between 2016-2018 he developed an independent producing and programming portfolio, working across artform, locating radical structures for the creation of new work. Projects included Leeds 2023 (developing the programme for Leeds’ bid to be European Capital of Culture), LIFT (producing the UK tour of Lola Arias’ Minefield), Northern Stage, Unlimited Theatre, Proto-type Theater, West Yorkshire Playhouse and independent artists Luca Rutherford and Hannah Jane Walker.

Matt was Artistic Director of Yorkshire Festival 2016, curating a programme featuring more than 900 artists, 15 new commissions and hundreds of performances and days of exhibition across the whole of the county. He was Head of Programme & Audiences at Warwick Arts Centre (2011-2015), where he co-produced work by artists and companies including Complicite, Forced Entertainment, and Theatre de Bouffe du Nord. Previously he was Executive Producer for Norfolk & Norwich Festival (2008-2011) and General Manager of Forced Entertainment (2003-2008).

Matt has been on judging panels, advisory and curatorial groups for the Total Theatre Awards, BE Festival, and international showcases including Caravan and Edinburgh, and on the boards of Something To Aim For, Candoco Dance Company, Reckless Sleepers and Bootworks Theatre Company.

Cristina has been the Festival Operations Manager at the Cambridge Film Trust since 2016, and a member of the Festival Management team leading the Cambridge Film Festival since 2020. Her role encompasses strategy, funding, partnerships, event coordination, and oversight of the Trust's educational programme.

With a background in film and TV production, Cristina has worked with leading production companies in Spain and managed large-scale events across academia, sports, and the arts. She is passionate about the transformative power of film and ensuring the industry remains accessible and inclusive. Originally from Catalonia, she relocated to the UK in 2013 and has made Cambridge her home.

Michael is an award-winning theatre maker and creative practitioner.

He is Associate Artistic Director at New International Encounter (NIE) Theatre, Chair at Oxford House Community Arts Centre and Vice Chair at Performance for Young Audiences (PYA) England. He has held roles at Royal Opera House, Dundee Rep, Theatre Centre, Arts Council and British Council.

Michael is a keen advocate for the transformative power of art in placemaking and for children and young people.

Dr Richard Wilson OBE is the CEO of TIGA, the trade association representing the UK video games industry. Richard’s mission is to make the UK the best place in the world to develop video games.

Richard has a deep knowledge of the creative industries, education, government, parliament and politics. He regularly meets Ministers, MPs and civil servants. He has a track record of influencing Government policy, successfully campaigning for the introduction of Video Games Tax Relief, an effective Video Games Expenditure Credit, prototype and content funding and an expansion of the Shortage Occupation List.

Richard works with colleges and universities to drive excellence in games education through TIGA course accreditation, conferences and awards. He provides guidance to graduates, supports studios to start-up, scale-up and grow and boosts best practice through the TIGA Games Industry Awards.

He has raised the profile of the games industry in media and political circles, winning 31 business awards and commendations in recognition of these efforts.

He has extensive executive and non-executive experience and currently serves as a NED for North Hertfordshire College, a trustee of The Passage Trading Services Ltd and a governor of a primary school.

Rachel is the Founder and Director of Collusion, a practice-led arts and technology organisation based in Cambridge that works across East Anglia with artists nationally.

Established in 2014, Collusion is an incubator for artist-led experimentation with technology that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, creative innovation, and socially-impactful projects; a not for profit and an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO). Collusion colludes with creatives, communities, academic and civic institutions and the tech sector to explore technology as a medium for artistic and social transformation, empowering artists, connecting communities, and shaping discourse.

Rachel has extensive knowledge and experience of the East of England's creative sector as a creative producer, strategist and fundraiser. She previously worked for Arts Council England from 1998-2013, most recently as Senior Regional Partnerships Manager, working closely with the cultural sector, local and regional government on ambitious place-based growth plans. She is a Co-Lead for the Create Cambridge Cultural Compact and sits on the Advisory Board for The Library Presents.

Matt is an experienced cultural leader and Oxford Cultural Leaders alum.

He's known locally for his work with the Cambridge Film Trust, Mill Road Library, and various other cultural and charitable bodies in Cambridge, following a career in management consultancy and foreign relations.

Matt has lived and worked in more than 20 countries, for short assignments throughout Europe (2000-6), with longer spells based in China and UAE (2006-9), Eastern Europe & Central Asia (2010-14), and Brazil (2014-18). Work has included large, complex, transformation programmes, cultural engagement, and network building. His arts/lit platform, Panorama, now receives more than 3 million visits per month.

Heather lives in central Cambridge and is the founder of Together Culture CIC.

Together Culture uses inclusive innovation processes and purposeful community design to build neighbourhood economies designed for people to actively enable one another's wellbeing.

Before her life in Cambridge, Heather was based in Denmark. After earning her MBA at Copenhagen Business School, she built a cultural hub that served as a node in the network of the Nordic Food Movement to build a community of foreigners and curious locals who wanted to develop new relationships with one another and the natural world. She has delivered community building strategies for The Reader, Science Gallery International, and Sustain. The first chapter of her career spanned a decade working in strategic development for cultural organisations including Tate, The Royal Academy of Arts, and Boston Ballet.

Genevieve was a founder director of First Light Festival CIC before becoming CEO in 2022, leading on strategy, artistic programming, and place-making. – also overseeing management and programming of the East Point Pavilion on Lowestoft's seafront. She also leads a consortium of local, regional and national partners for the Battery of Ideas. This is an Arts Council England Place Partnership project, testing ideas around the design, operation and programming of the new cultural quarter development in Lowestoft town centre, due to open in 2027.

Genevieve was a founder director of Full Circle Editions, an award-winning publisher for the East of England, and of the literary arts charity FlipSide.

Previously she worked as a television producer, training at the BBC, and then working for LWT on a raft of factual programmes before co-forming independent production company Carey St Productions. She has commissioned many co-productions between UK and international broadcasters.

With a keen interest in education, Genevieve served for 13 years as a trustee and the chair of trustees of a single academy trust. She is a board member of University of East Anglia AHRC IAA Delivery Board, trustee of Framlingham Arts Trust, sits on the advisory board of Clay 1A – a new centre for ceramic arts in Ipswich – and a board member of the Norfolk and Suffolk Culture Board.