Advisory Board

Nigel Gilroy

Nigel Gilroy is a chartered account that has worked in the industry for more than 30 years, offering a range of services including accountancy, tax planning, business valuation, and profit growth. He is passionate about growing businesses, increasing profitability, and retaining existing clients by delivering exceptional levels of customer service.

Jeanette Bain-Burnett

Jeanette Bain-Burnett is a senior social policy advisor and cultural strategist. She is currently Assistant Director of Communities and Social Policy at the Greater London Authority and Communities lead for the London Violence Reduction Unit. Jeanette was Director of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora from 2007-2014.

Neil Mackinnon

Neil Mackinnon is a maker, manager, problem solver and Head of Artistic Rentals and Partnerships at Southbank Centre, where he has worked in various producing and business roles since 2008. Previously a full-time musician, Neil has also worked for Edinburgh Festival Theatre, the British Council and Serious International Music Producers.

Neil produces and presents the podcast Creative Practice.

Steve Boyd

Steve Boyd has contributed to 15 consecutive Olympic Games from Barcelona 1992 to Tokyo 2020. Other credits include Special Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Paralympics, Asian Games and Super Bowl Halftimes, and Creative Director of “Kynren”. Prior to event production, Steve designed for several Condé Nast publications including The New Yorker.

Elin Morgan

Elin Morgan studied European Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford before embarking on a career in communications fourteen years ago. She’s worked at Battersea Arts Centre, the Lyric Hammersmith, Sadler’s Wells as Head of Press and was a Director of Prospero Communications, working across various business sectors including theatre and comedy. Elin joined Mobius Industries as PR director in 2014 and is also a trustee of Theatre Uncut.

Denise Nurse

Denise Nurse is an award-winning entrepreneur, solicitor, and broadcaster. In 2007 she co-founded Halebury with Janvi Patel, a pioneering UK NewLaw firm. Halebury introduced flexible & agile working in the legal industry and was a leading business in diversity and inclusion. In 2018 Denise successfully sold the business to a global legal services business, and she stepped down from her role as VP Flex Resourcing in 2020.

Whilst working as an in-house lawyer at Sky, in 2004 Denise won an internal competition to become a presenter. She went on to present the Weather for Sky News & programming for Sky News, Sky Travel and Sky One. She then became one of the main presenters of BBC One’s flagship programme, Escape to the Country.

She is an ambassador for Women in the Law UK, an Executive Committee Member of Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK), and a board member of One Dance UK. A keynote speaker on issues relating to diversity, women in business, law, and entrepreneurship. Denise is passionate about education, economic empowerment, and dance.

Denise has been recognised with the Ernst & Young Black Network Inspiration Award 2014, the Precious Award for Entrepreneurs of the Year 2015, UK Diversity Legal Awards for Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of an SME Law Firm 2016, We Are The City Rising Star Award 2017, Listed in 2018 TimeWise Power 50 List, and Woman of Influence & Power in Law 2020.

She lives in SW London with her husband and three children.

Gemma Griffiths

Gemma Griffiths is a Producer in Participation and Events at East London Dance, a Lecturer, Teacher and previously a Director of Learning leading an Expressive Arts Department in Music, Dance, Drama and Art & Design in secondary and further education. She is a passionate speaker, directing and creating programmes that demonstrate and champion the impact of the arts in formal and non-formal settings. She earned her PGCE and MA from The Royal Academy of Dance and trained as a dancer at Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Lisa Anderson

Lisa Anderson is an avid contemporary arts enthusiast and advisor with expert knowledge on art from the African Diaspora in the UK and beyond. In 2015 she launched Black British Art as an online curatorial platform to showcase the variety and depth of this phenomenal corner of the art market.

In 2016 she was selected as one of 10 curators to compliment the International Curators Forum ‘Diaspora Pavilion’ project for the 2017 Venice Biennale. She has since curated private exhibitions for Latham and Watkins featuring artists who have gone on to be selected as Bloomberg New Contemporary artists and featured in major international art collections. She has represented artists at Basel as a Trustee for Addis Fine Art, visited international biennales during the grand tour, presented papers at a number of academic conferences and written articles for a variety of arts platforms.

Lisa Anderson developed her passion for arts whilst carving out a successful career in corporate fundraising and international business development. With a first-class degree in International Relations and Masters in Human Rights, she has worked with treasured cultural institutions like the Natural History Museum as well as pioneering international practices like NLE. She also has a background in dance performance and serves on the advisory board for Uchenna Dance Company. This unique blend of creative passion, knowledge, and business expertise has made her an incredibly well connected and sought-after culture and arts insider.

Peter Laycock

Peter Laycock is a creative learning and audience engagement specialist with over 15 years’ experience in arts education, participation producing and management. He has been commissioned to devise and write learning resources for The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts and MOKO Dance and was a subject expert (Dance) for Ofqual during the Department for Education’s 2014 review of GCSE and A levels. For over eight years Peter worked at The Place, where he led the organisation’s contextual and schools programmes, and the Fundamental Teaching Practice module for London Contemporary Dance School.

Peter holds a first-class BA (Hons.) in Performing Arts -Dance from Middlesex University, an MA in Choreography from the University of Leeds and a PGCE (Dance and Drama) from the University of Huddersfield.

ADVISORY BOARD