- Experienced arts professional Yvette Vaughan Jones takes up role of Chair, with five new appointments to the Board of Directors
Welsh National Opera is delighted to announce that Yvette Vaughan Jones has been appointed as Chair of the Board of Directors, with immediate effect. Yvette, who has extensive experience of working in the arts both in the UK and internationally, is the first woman in the Company’s history to hold the role of Chair of WNO.
Five new members have also been appointed to the WNO Board of Directors, strengthening the Board in key areas including governance, finance, diversity, Welsh language and higher education. The appointments take the Board to 13 serving members.
Yvette’s distinguished career in the arts has seen her working for independent arts organisations, the Arts Council of Wales – where she set up Wales Arts International – local authorities, and Welsh Government. Prior to taking up the post of Chief Executive of Visiting Arts, she wrote Cardiff’s bid for City of Culture 2008. Yvette has also worked in Europe as Policy Manager for the Wales Centre in Brussels, and has also focused on international work at Visiting Arts where she set up the global Square Mile project as well as the World Cultures Connect project. She is a former member of the UK Cultural Diplomacy group and former Lead Adviser on the UK Cultural Leadership Programme.
Yvette is shortly due to step down from her current role as Chief Executive of Visiting Arts, and will be standing down as Chair of No Fit State Circus in December 2019.
Speaking about her new role, Yvette Vaughan Jones said: "I am thrilled at the opportunity to take on the Chair of Welsh National Opera at this time and am acutely aware of the eminence of previous Chairs who have done such a fine job. WNO is a fantastic organisation whose origins are well known to have been formed in the community choirs for which Wales is rightly famous.
“I think that National organisations will need to be very different in the 21st century. There is an ever increasing need to show how the national companies reflect the widely differing interests of the people of Wales and England from Anglesey to Ely.
“WNO has for many years been a beacon of quality and excellence in the opera and music world and now the challenge is to show how the light from that beacon not only shines in the smaller towns and villages across Wales but also it illuminates the desires and interests, giving a voice, through opera to many more people."
The five new appointments to the WNO Board are:
- Lynne Berry OBE, who will take on the position of Senior Independent Director. Lynne is Chair of Sustrans and until recently was Chair of Breast Cancer Now. She is a Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City, University of London, a Fellow Commoner of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge and an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University. She has held several Chief Executive posts: RVS; the Charity Commission; the General Social Care Council; the Equal Opportunities Commission; and the Family Welfare Association.
The role of the Senior Independent Director is a new position designed to act as a sounding board for the Chair and to serve as an intermediary for other board members and the General Director. The role has been introduced to strengthen the governance of the WNO Board.
- Manon Edwards Ahir, Head of News, Media and Digital at the National Assembly for Wales. Manon enjoyed a long career as a journalist and series producer at the BBC working in foreign affairs and newsgathering before specialising in politics. She left the BBC to establish the bilingual communications agency, Mela and is a champion of bilingual communications. Manon also joined Cardiff University as a Journalism and Communications Lecturer at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture. Manon has previously been a Board Member for Cardiff Dance Festival and Yr Hen Lyfrgell, Cardiff’s Welsh Language Centre.
- Aileen Richards, former Executive Vice President of Mars, Incorporated, where she had a 30-year career working in senior roles in the UK, Belgium and USA. Aileen is an Independent non-executive on several boards, including the Board of the Welsh Rugby Union which she was the first woman to join.
- Dr. Chitra Bharucha MBE, former Deputy Director, Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, and Consultant Clinical Haematologist, Belfast City Hospital. During her medical career, she served on several national and international committees and councils, including the WHO Expert Advisory Panel for Blood Products, where she developed Cord Blood Banking and chaired the Committee for Standardisation of Cord Blood Banking in Europe. She later served in several regulatory roles, specialising in corporate governance, and was appointed Vice Chairman - becoming Acting Chairman - at the inception of the BBC Trust.
- Nicola Amery, former Operations Director at Spire Healthcare plc. Nicola has over 30 years’ professional experience in senior executive and non-executive roles, mostly in healthcare and education. She sits on the Board of Governors at Cardiff Metropolitan University where she chairs both the Remuneration and Resources Committees.
In addition to the new board roles a new Independent Member of Audit & Risk, Nigel Goldsworthy has been appointed who has extensive legal and financial experience from Rolls Royce.
Chair of the WNO Board Nominations Committee, Andrew Miller, who oversaw the recruitment process for the new Chair and Board members said: "Through our searches for a new Chair and Board members, we have strengthened the WNO Board with wide ranging skills and lived experience that will position us well to face the challenges of the 2020s.
“I am delighted that all our appointments are women and that for the first time in our 73 year history, WNO will have a female Chair in Yvette Vaughan Jones. We have also widened our diversity, making the WNO Board more representative of the public who fund us with perhaps the most inclusive Board anywhere in UK opera."
WNO General Director, Aidan Lang, said: ““It gives me real pleasure to welcome all the new board members to Welsh National Opera. Arts organisations must be in a state of constant evolution if they are to adapt to these constantly changing times. As purse-strings are tightened and the arts sector as a whole comes under increasing pressure, the infusion of new ideas that will come with the new members, combined with the experience and knowledge of the existing board, will put the company in a strong position to face the challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead. In particular, it is a tremendous asset for WNO to have in Yvette a Chair who has such a broad range of experience in the arts sphere, and I am hugely looking forward to working alongside her in the years ahead”.
- Welsh National Opera is the national opera company for Wales, funded by the Arts Councils of Wales and England to provide large scale opera, concerts and outreach work across Wales and to major cities in the English regions.
- WNO production images are available for download at http://www.wno.org.uk/press
- For more information, photos or interviews please contact:
Rachel Bowyer / Penny James, Press Manager (job share)
029 20635038
rachel.bowyer@wno.org.uk / penny.james@wno.org.uk
Rhys Edwards, Press Officer
029 2063 5037
rhys.edwards@wno.org.uk