RSC Chair

Shriti Vadera is the Chair of Prudential plc and was previously the chair of Santander UK, a Director of AstraZeneca and Senior Independent Director of BHP.  She has over 35 years of experience spanning public and private sectors, in the UK and internationally.

Shriti started her career as an investment banker for 14 years with a particular focus on emerging markets. She joined the Council of Economic Advisers, HM Treasury in 1999, leading on policy areas for business, productivity, private finance, and international development issues. From 2007-2009 she was a Minister and best known for leading the UK Government’s response to the Financial Crisis. She was a key architect of its pioneering bank recapitalisation and funding plan in 2008 and helped design the outcomes of the G20 London Summit in 2009. After leaving government, Shriti served as an adviser to the Presidency of the G20 and to governments and investors around the world.

Shriti was born in Uganda and went to school in Uganda and India before moving to the UK to continue her education. She read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.

Co-Deputy Chair Mark Thompson became President and Chief Executive Officer of The New York Times Company in November 2012. Since that time, he has directed the Company’s strategy and presided over an expansion of its digital and global operations.

Prior to that, he served as Director-General of the BBC from 2004, where he ensured that it remained a leading innovator with the launch of services like the BBC iPlayer.  Mark first joined the BBC in 1979 as a production trainee. He left for two years in 2002 to become Chief Executive Officer of Channel 4 Television before returning in 2004 as Director-General.

In autumn 2012, he was Visiting Professor of Rhetoric and the Art of Public Persuasion at the University of Oxford.

His book, Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics? is based on the lectures he gave there and was published in both the UK and US in September 2016.

Mark Thompson was educated at Stonyhurst College and Merton College Oxford. In his teens, he lived near Stratford-upon-Avon and has since been a regular visitor to the RSC. 

Co-Deputy Chair Andrew Miller has transformed perceptions throughout his 35 year career in the creative industries, and is recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disability advocates with extensive experience of the arts, film and TV sectors.

Starting out in broadcasting, Andrew belongs to the first generation of disabled presenters on British television and went on to produce and direct TV arts documentaries. Later becoming the first wheelchair-user to run a major arts venue, he also established the role of UK Government Disability Champion for Culture, he co-founded the UK Disability Arts Alliance #WeShallNotBeRemoved and was inaugural chair of the influential BFI Disability Screen Advisory Group. Previous board positions have included the Arts Council of Wales, The Space and Welsh National Opera.

Today Andrew works with leading cultural brands to improve access and to create new opportunities for disabled people. His current portfolio of roles includes: UK Arts Access Champion supporting the delivery of All In - the national arts access scheme for disabled audiences; he is a member of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority co-creation council and the Museums Strategic Disability Network; he is Creative Director of Trinity College Oxford, a National Council member of Arts Council England and a trustee of BAFTA - where he is chair of Young BAFTA.

At the RSC, Andrew chairs the Nominations Committee.

Daniel became Co-Artistic Director of the RSC with Tamara Harvey in June 2023.

Read Daniel's full biography

Geoff Barton was most recently General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, a trade union representing more than 25,000 educational leaders from all types of schools and colleges across the UK. He held this post for seven years. Prior to this, for 15 years he was headteacher at King Edward VI School in Suffolk, an 11-18 comprehensive school of 1,600 students.

Geoff attended Walton Comprehensive School, in Stafford (1974-81); read English and Linguistics at Lancaster University (1981-84); then trained as a teacher at Leicester University (1984-5). He has taught in Leeds, York, and Suffolk. Geoff has written and edited more than 100 books on literature, grammar and literacy. He is a writer for many publications, and a regular commentator in the media on educational matters.

He is patron of the English & Media Centre, a Founding Fellow of the English Association, and for seven years was a trustee of the National Teaching Awards, celebrating the work of teachers and other staff working in education.

He was recently appointed as chair of the independent Commission on Oracy in Education.

Tamara became Co-Artistic Director of the RSC with Daniel Evans in June 2023. 

Nicholas Hytner is Artistic Director of the London Theatre Company. Its first theatre – the Bridge – opened in 2017. His productions at the Bridge include Young Marx, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bach and Sons, John Gabriel Borkman, Guys and Dolls. Its second space – Lightroom – opened in 2023 with David Hockney’s installation Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)

He was Director of the National Theatre from 2003-2015, where he directed plays by Alan Bennett (The Madness of George III, The History Boys, The Habit of Art); Shakespeare (Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Timon of Athens, Othello); plays from the classical repertoire (The Alchemist, Phèdre, London Assurance); and a wide range of new plays. He delivered a repertoire of 20 productions a year, including War Horse and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time, and introduced NT Live cinema broadcasts around the world.

He has worked widely in opera - in London, Paris, Munich and New York; and in film (The Lady in The Van, The Madness of King George.) Theatre awards include three Olivier, five Evening Standard awards and three Tony awards.

His book Balancing Acts was published by Jonathan Cape in 2017.

He served as a Trustee of the Royal Opera House 2008-2021.

He is an Honorary Doctor of Letters at Cambridge University and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts at the Juilliard School. He was knighted in 2009.

Andrew is the RSC's Chief Executive.

Read Andrew Leveson's full biography

Amanda is the Founder Director of Inc Arts UK, which advocates for the creative, contractual and economic rights of the UK’s ethnically diverse arts sector workforce.  Previous Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion roles include her leadership of the BBC’s recruitment and awareness campaign for the launch of BBC Radio 1Xtra, and as Head of Communications for Directors UK, Amanda was responsible for overseeing the UK’s first industry-wide research into gender diversity in TV directing.

A former broadcaster in BBC news and current affairs teams, Amanda’s previous roles include Development Producer for BBC Arts (TV) and BBC Radio and Music, as well as Campaigns management for BBC Education.  Recognition for her work in EDI advocacy and campaigns include CRE Race in the Media, Royal Television Society, MIND Mental Health in the Media and the Stephen Lawrence Foundation awards.

Amanda’s advocacy includes representations to UK and European Parliaments on behalf of cultural and creative sector workers, and UK-wide campaigns on anti-racist action in the arts and cultural sector.  Amanda is on the Arts and Culture Strategy Group for the COVID-19 London Government Task Force, the advisory board for the UK Coalition for Cultural Diversity, and the advisory board for Sheffield University’s COVID-19 culture and arts recovery project.

Amanda has been a trustee of Film London since 2016, serving on the FLAMIN visual arts committee, as well as the communications and public affairs and audience development working groups; she is a trustee of Intermission Youth and was the inaugural chair of Parents and Carers in Performance Arts in 2017. Amanda is Director of London Short Film Festival, is an RSA Fellow, and a Clore Fellow. 

Winsome’s stage plays include Rockets and Blue Lights (Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre), Glutathione (Young Vic Theatre), The Principles of Cartography (The Bush Theatre), Tituba (Hampstead Theatre), Cleaning Up (For Clean Break at Oval House Theatre), Taken (For Clean Break at Oval House Theatre), IDP (Tricycle Theatre), The Stowaway (Play for young people, Plymouth Theatre), One Under (Tricycle Theatre), Beg Borrow or Steal (Kuumba Community Arts Centre), Water (Tricycle Theatre), Mules (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs and Clean Break Theatre), Can you Keep a Secret? (Connections at Royal National Theatre), A Rock in Water (Royal Court Theatre), Leave Taking (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, National Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Lyric theatre, Hammersmith), A Heroes Welcome (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs), The Wind of Change (Half Moon Theatre) and Picture Palace (Womens Theatre Group). Radio plays include Leave Taking (Radio 4), Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (Adapted from autobiography by Maya Angelou for Radio 4), Clean Trade (Radio 4), Lazarus (Radio 3), Her Father’s Daughter (Radio 4), Let Them Call it Jazz (adapted from Jean Rhys’ short story, Radio 4), Indiana (adapted from novel by George Sand), The Dinner Party (Radio 4), Something Borrowed (Radio 4) and Water (Radio 4). She co-wrote the screenplay Bitter Harvest. 

Clare is CEO of Watershed a home for Cultural Cinema, talent development and creative technology in Bristol, UK. She works with industry, academic and creative partners from around the world to champion inclusion, support talent and develop new ideas. 

Clare is a Visiting Professor at University of the West of England. She is Chair of Emma Rice's Wise Children, and also a Trustee of British Council. 

Anna is currently a non-executive board member and chair of the audit committee at FiscalNote Inc. She also serves on the board of the global vaccine alliance, GAVI, which helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases, and the board of trustees for the Army Benevolent Fund. Anna also supports Happy Doggo, a social media led charity dedicated to alleviating the suffering of street dogs in Thailand.

Anna graduated from the University of Adelaide, qualified as a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Emma is a leading Shakespeare scholar, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford, and author of numerous books.

Emma’s books include Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book and This Is Shakespeare. She edits the journal Shakespeare Survey, is the General Editor for the Oxford World’s Classics Shakespeare and is currently working on a new edition of Twelfth Night for the Arden series.

Emma was announced as an RSC Associate Scholar in 2021 alongside Professor James Shapiro and Professor Ayanna Thompson. She co-Chaired the RSC Expert Research Group for the landmark Time To Act project (February 2024), which reveals ground-breaking insights into the impact arts learning has on young people’s language development and confidence. She also regularly contributes articles to our production programmes.

Mark is a Chartered Accountant who worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 36 years, primarily within the Audit and Risk practice. He was a Partner in the firm for 24 years through to 2021, was the Chairman of the Midlands Practice from 2008 to 2015 and then acted as the COO of PwC’s UK Assurance practice from 2017 to 2021.

Mark was also a board member of Marketing Birmingham / West Midlands Growth Company for seven years, where he chaired the Audit Committee, and he is now the Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance committee of the West Midlands Combined Authority. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Castings PLC, where he chairs the Audit and Risk Committee.

Mark has a long standing interest and involvement with the arts sector having been a board member of the Birmingham Hippodrome from 2009 to 2016, including being a member of their Audit and Nominations Committees. He is also a patron of The Old Vic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Ayanna is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, and the Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS). She is the author of Blackface (Bloomsbury, 2021), Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Sellars (Arden Bloomsbury, 2018), Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach, co-authored with Laura Turchi (Arden Bloomsbury, 2016), Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (Oxford University Press, 2011), and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (Routledge, 2008). She wrote the new introduction for the revised Arden3 Othello (Arden, 2016), and is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (Palgrave, 2010), and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (Routledge, 2006). She is currently collaborating with Curtis Perry on the Arden4 edition of Titus Andronicus.

Thompson is a Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at The Public Theatre in New York. She currently chairs the Council of Scholars at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY, serves on the Board of Play On Shakespeare, and previously served on the Board for Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC.

She was the 2018-19 President of the Shakespeare Association of America and was one of Phi Beta Kappa’s Visiting Scholars for 2017-2018. From 2015-2017, Thompson served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars. 

Liz qualified as a solicitor in 1989 and became a partner at Mishcon de Reya in 1998, before moving to Clintons and leading the firm’s Family practice, with over 23 years’ experience in dealing with both financial cases (including pre and post-nuptial agreements) and work relating to children. Liz acts for clients from all walks of life, with a particular expertise in dealing with high net worth complex financial cases involving businesses and trusts, often with an international dimension.

Liz was part of the original team that acted for Diana, Princess of Wales in her divorce. She has an established reputation for dealing with high profile clients from the sports, entertainment and media fields and their spouses. Liz also acted for both Karen Parlour in respect of the widely reported landmark case, and for Slavica Ecclestone.

Liz is a collaboratively trained lawyer and member of the Central London Collaborative Forum. She has a wide range of alternative dispute resolution skills to assist in the resolution of difficult family disputes without involving the courts.

Liz is also a fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. 

Jonathan is an accomplished property investor and developer and has practised as a chartered surveyor since 1984.

His career has included spells at a major insurance and pension fund, other City of London institutions, and for the last 20 years he has been in partnership with UCG, a substantial private property company.

Jonathan has recently completed office refurbishments, a new industrial development, a complex refurbishment of a historic building to create a new home for a school and residential schemes.

He has been a Trustee of the Donmar Warehouse since 2018, before that he was involved in the acquisition and refurbishment of their Dryden Street rehearsal and office space and in 2020/2021 he led the team remodelling the Earlham Street Theatre with a focus on access and sustainability.

Sir David Bell KBE
Anita Bhalla OBE
Elizabeth Boissevain
Bruce Kovner 
Professor Ruru Li
Sandie Okoro
Sir Anthony Seldon
David Tennant
Justine Themen
Lucy Williams

Sir Geoffrey Cass

Lady Anderson 
Sir Stanley Wells

Neil Benson OBE 
David Burbidge CBE
Michael Crystal KC
Miranda Curtis CMG
Tony Hales CBE 
Charles Holloway OBE
Ian Laing CBE
Dr Douglas McPherson
Charlotte Heber Percy 
Lord Willoughby de Broke  
Stratford Town Mayor 
Chair, Stratford-on-Avon District Council 
The Director, Shakespeare Institute 
The Chief Executive, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Andrew Miller MBE (Chair)
Anita Bhalla OBE
Amanda Parker
Winsome Pinnock
Clare Reddington
Mark Thompson
Shriti Vadera (ex officio)

Mark Smith (Chair)
Andrew Clayton
Andy Halls
Anna Sedgley
Shriti Vadera (ex officio)
Liz Vernon
Lucy Williams