Nigel has been in the top tier of the UK property industry for more than two decades, after becoming one of the youngest ever chief executives of a FTSE 250 company when Chelsfield plc was listed in 1993.

He went on to chair the European operations of Australian giant, Lend Lease Corporation, was a Special Advisor to Sir Bob Kerslake at the Homes and Communities Agency before founding the brownfield development company Urban&Civic in 2009, where he is Chief Executive.

He is Chair of urban think tank, Centre for Cities, Council member of the London School of Economics  and Chair of the Committee for the Redevelopment of Tate Britain on Millbank

Nigel is perhaps best known as instigator of the Stratford City project and for his early advocacy that the previously derelict rail lands in East London could prove a viable Olympic contender. Those development proposals formed the basis of the successful London 2012 bid and what has become the largest regeneration project in Europe.

His thumb print also runs across many other defining major metropolitan schemes, including  Bankside, Paddington Basin, Westfield at White City, Greenwich Pensinula, Elephant and Castle, and Brierley Hill in the West Midlands.

Urban&Civic are now responsible for some of the largest housing and employment sites in the country, in high growth areas in and around Cambridge and Rugby.

He lives in Putney with Christine, his wife of 25 years and their four children.

Born in Jamaica, Sir William moved to Britain at the age of seven. His first teaching appointment was in Portsmouth and he came to Phoenix High School in Shepherds Bush as Headteacher in 1995, having previously held headships at Cranford Community School, Hounslow, and Copland Community School, Brent.

In September 2010 he became Executive Headteacher of The Phoenix Canberra Schools Federation. His excellent leadership at Phoenix, overcoming low results and bad behaviour, was reported to have been the inspiration for the head teacher character in the BBC's school drama,Hope and Glory.

In 2008, Ofsted inspectors praised Sir William's role in the school's continuing improvement: 'The school is exceptionally well led by a charismatic, indefatigable head teacher who receives excellent support and challenge from a fully committed governing body,' said the inspectors.

Sir William was a member of the DfEE Standards Task Force between 1997 and 2001. He also sat on the Home Office Justice Task Force and the Home Office London Youth Crime Reduction Task Force. Until 2006 Sir William was a member of the London Black and Minority Ethnic Cracking Crime Partnership Board and until December 2009 was Deputy Chair of the UK Judging Panel for The Teaching Awards. He was also a member of the British Board of Film Classification advisory panel on children's viewing until the summer of 2010.

He is currently a trustee for Research Autism, a commissioner for The Family Commission, a national inquiry into the extended family and the support it needs in the 21st century and on the Board of Directors of the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith.

In January 2010 the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services selected Sir William as a National Leader of Education and designated Phoenix High School as a National Support School.

Sir William has also been widely featured in the media, including the Channel 4 documentary series 'The Unteachables'. He has also contributed to a range of television and radio programmes, including Newsnight, Panorama, BBC Question Time, Breakfast Television, The One Show and Inside Out and Radio 4's The House I Grew Up In and Saturday Live.

Sir William was made a knight in June 2008 in the Queen's birthday honours, for his services to education and community.

Miranda worked for over 20 years in the international broadband cable industry with John Malone at Liberty Global. In that time Miranda negotiated and managed joint ventures on Liberty's behalf across Europe and Asia Pacific, most notably in Japan, where she led the creation and development of the J:Com group. Having successfully negotiated the multi-billion dollar sale of Liberty's Japanese interests in early 2010, Miranda retired from her executive role and was invited by Dr Malone to join the Board of Liberty Global as a non-executive director.

Since retirement Miranda has built a UK-based portfolio. She was Chairman of  Waterstones from 2011-2016, and continues to serve as a non-executive director of Marks & Spencer plc. She is also Chair of Camfed, the leading charity delivering programmes at scale to educate girls and empower young women in Africa.

Miranda is a Trustee of The Institute for Government, and in March 2017 was named Lead Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Genista (Jenny) McIntosh held a number of senior positions in major arts organisations before becoming an independent consultant.

She was Principal of Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2002/2003). She was Executive Director of the Royal National Theatre between 1990 and 1996 and again between 1997 and 2002, and was briefly Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House in 1997.

Between 1972 and 1990 she held a number of posts at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

She was a founder Trustee of NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) from 1998 until 2005 and currently serves on the Boards of the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, Artis Education, National Opera Studio, Southbank Sinfonia and Roundhouse Trust.

Genista holds honorary doctorates from the University of York (1998), the University of Middlesex (2002) and City University (2002) and received an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2003.

She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1999 she was created a Life Peer taking the title Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall.

Sandie is General Counsel of HSBC Global Asset Management and Deputy General Counsel of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management.

She is also a member of the Executive Management Committee of HSBC Asset Management. She has responsibility for managing HSBC's Asset Management's legal risk and legal teams across all these jurisdictions.

Prior to joining HSBC in January 2014 she was General Counsel at Barings Asset Management, and was with Schroders before this for 17 years.

Sandie is the only known female and ethnic minority lawyer holding such a position in the City and has received a number of awards including the 2014 Chambers Europe Award for Excellence in the category for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession.

She is also featured in the Powerlist which profiles Britain's 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage, ranking eighth this year.

She became President of International Lawyers of Africa (ILFA) in January 2014, having previously been a director there.

In late 2013 she became a council member of Justice, the Human Rights organisation chaired by Baroness Kennedy.

She is an Ambassador for the Law Society's Diversity Access Scheme, a trustee of the Powerlist Foundation, and is a member of The Prince's Trust Women's Leadership Group.

In 2011 she became a board member of the Panel of Recognised International Market Experts in Finance (PRIME Finance), a new international body based in The Hague, as well as being appointed to its panel of experts, and sitting on its Finance Audit Committee.

She was previously a Chair of the CLO (Chief Legal Officers) Programme and she is a former trustee of LawWorks and a former governor of La Retraite RC Girls School in Clapham.

James is a Shakespeare scholar and author; as well as being The Larry Miller Professor of English within the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1985, although is currently on sabbatical.

He specialises in Shakespeare, medieval and early modern drama, Jewish studies and British poetry.

He is the author of numerous books including 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain, andContested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (2010) which was awarded the Theater Library Association's George Freedley Memorial Award.

He is currently at work on another book, The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, drawing on some of his recent experiences in the rehearsal room with the RSC.

He has co-edited the Columbia Anthology of British Poetry and served as the Associate Editor of the Columbia History of British Poetry.

He has also taught as a Fulbright lecturer at Bar Ilan and Tel Aviv Universities and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, The New York Public Library Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and the Huntingdon Library. His essays and reviews have been widely published.

James serves on the Board of Governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Advisory Council for the Authors Guild. In 2011 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

David Tennant is a prolific Scottish actor who established himself as a respected classical stage actor early in his career.

In 1996, at 25 years old, he joined the RSC as Touchstone in As You Like It and went on to play Jack Lane in The Herbal Bed, the leading role in Romeo and Juliet, and Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors (for which he received a nomination in the 2000 Ian Charleson awards for Best Classical Actor under 30).

He returned to the RSC to play Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost and a much acclaimed Hamlet in 2008 which the BBC made into a TV film version starring Tennant in 2009. It was also the subject of a recent documentary as part of the BBC's Shakespeare Unlocked series in 2012.

David is perhaps best known for his role of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which has made him a household name, along with his role as Barty Crouch Junior in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire although he has a wide ranging repertoire, performing in numerous TV productions, films and theatre generally, as well as audio dramas and recordings for radio.

In Winter 2012 David played the title role in Richard II.

He has received a number of awards throughout his career including the 2009 Theatregoers' Choice Awards, The AKA Theatre Event of the Year: Hamlet; the 2010 National Television Award, Outstanding Drama Performance: Doctor Who; the 2011 TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Single Father; and the 2012 BBC Audio Drama Awards, Best Actor: Kafka: The Musical. He was also nominated for the 2012 What's on Stage Awards, Best Actor: Much Ado About Nothing in which he appeared with his former co-star Catherine Tate at the Wyndham's Theatre in 2011.

He is a Patron of the Association for International Cancer Research, Headway Essex which deals with brain injury and Circle Scotland which supports marginalized children and families in Scottish communities. He has also taken part in Children in Need.

Patsy Rodenburg OBE has been Head of Voice at the Guildhall School for over 30 years and until recently at the National Theatre. She previously worked in residence with the RSC in the 1980s and was an assistant to Cicely Berry before leaving to join the National Theatre.

She trained in Voice Studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama and is recognized as one of the world's leading voice teachers and coaches, and also as a renowned authority on Shakespeare.

Patsy regularly works with high profile actors of British theatre, film and television.

Patsy's base in America is at the renowned Michael Howard Studios in New York City where she teaches workshops for the professional actor. She frequently travels around the world teaching and speaking, from Los Angeles to Canada, Portugal, Australia and India.

She has also been an active voice for Penal Reform in the UK; and has staged Shakespeare in maximum-security prisons and worked with the criminally insane for over 25 years.

Her passion for communication and the spoken word has broken down racial, religious, and class barriers the world over.

Patsy is well known for a number of publications which include

• Speaking Shakespeare
• The Right to Speak
• The Second Circle and Power Presentation

She has also recently released a series of DVDs chronicling the first 30 years of her work, entitled Patsy Rodenburg Brings You: Shakespeare in the Present.

She has also worked with the Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse and Almeida Theatre. Patsy has also worked extensively with many international theatres such as the Moscow Art Theatre and Comedie-Française.

Ian joined our board in November 2013. He also sits on the board of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and of the Belarus Free Theatre based in London.

He spent his professional life in broadcasting. From  2011 to 2015 Ian was Controller of Current Affairs and News Operations, part of the network team at the commercial broadcaster ITV. Before that he was responsible for current affairs and ITV's regional news output.

He joined the BBC in his early career, and Carlton Studios from 1994-2000, where he became Managing Director. Then he joined ITV Central and was Director of Regional Production before becoming Controller of ITV Regions and Current Affairs, 2009-2011.

He has held numerous key regional appointments including President of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry 2004-2005 (Vice President, 2002-2004); Chairman of Birmingham Repertory Theatre 2005-2013, Director of Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre 2005-2009, Chairman, Marketing Birmingham 2004-2009, and Chairman, Birmingham City Pride 2001-2004.

His directorships have included West Midlands Life 1999-2003, Director of Birmingham City University 2005-2009, Fair Cities Birmingham 2005-2007 and Midland Heart Housing Associations 2007-2009.

In 1987 he won a BAFTA Award for Best Arts Programme for A Simple Man, a TV ballet on life of LS Lowry. More recent programmes he has commissioned have received Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild awards, and in 2013 the Peabody Award in the United States together with an International Emmy.

Mark is a Senior Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Birmingham and was the Chairman of their business in the Midlands from 2008 to 2015. He joined Price Waterhouse in 1985 before qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1988. He holds a first class degree in Economics from the University of Manchester.

Mark was Chairman of the Development Trust and a member of the Board of the Birmingham Hippodrome from 2009 to 2016 and in recent years he has been a member of their Audit and Nominations committees. Mark is also a Director of Marketing Birmingham where he has also been chair of the Audit Committee for the last six years.

Mark is a patron of a number of arts organisations including the RSC, the Old Vic and the CBSO.

Mark 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.

George Alagiah
Sir Jonathan Bate
Sir David Bell
Anita Bhalla OBE
Malorie Blackman OBE
Lord Carter of Barnes CBE
Michael Clasper CBE
Jane Drabble OBE
Noma Dumezweni
Sir Brian Follett
Lisa Hammond
John Hornby
Bruce Kovner 
Ian Laing CBE
Professor Ruru Li
Dame Hilary Mantel DBE
Paul Morrell OBE
Alexander Patrick CBE
Ian Ritchie CBE, RA
Baroness Scotland of Asthal
Brockman Seawell
Sir Anthony Seldon
Sue Stapely
Meera Syal CBE
Dame Harriet Walter DBE
Mike Wright

Sir Geoffrey Cass

Lady Anderson 
Charles Flower 
Drue Heinz DBE 
Frederick R. Koch 
Professor Stanley Wells

Neil Benson OBE 
Philip Bermingham
David Burbidge OBE
Michael Crystal QC 
Tony Hales CBE 
Sara Harrity MBE 
Martin Iredale FCA 
Charlotte Heber Percy 
Roger Pringle MA 
Telfer Saywell 
Lord Willoughby De Broke  
Stratford Town Mayor 
Chairman, Stratford District Council 
The Director, Shakespeare Institute 
The Director, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust