Mark Foster – Chair

Mark became Chair of the Board of Trustees in March 2022. Until recently he was Senior Vice President, IBM Services & Global Business Services, a role he exchanged for Chairman IBM Consulting from 1 January. Prior to joining IBM, Mark Foster had a 27-year career at Accenture, retiring as Group Chief Executive Global Markets & Management Consulting. Mark served for nine years on the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company and remains a member of the RSC Artists Circle and Americas Board. He is also passionate about education and aside from serving in the past as a Governor of Cranleigh School, has operated and chaired Peaslake Free School, a community-based school in Surrey, for over 25 years.

Neil Adleman

Neil Adleman is a Partner and Head of the Theatre Group at solicitors Harbottle & Lewis LLP. He advises on a wide range of issues across the theatre sector and his clients include leading producers in the West End and on Broadway and theatres across the country. Neil has served as Chair of Sheffield Theatres Trust and Deputy Chair of Leeds Theatres Trust, and is Chair of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation which supports the work of playwrights.

Jessica Brown-Fuller

Jess Brown-Fuller is a Chichester District Councillor and is the portfolio holder for Culture, Licensing and Events. Jess was a proud member of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre in the ‘00s and gained her degree in Performing Arts from the University of Chichester.

Jean Vianney Cordeiro

Jean Vianney Cordeiro is a corporate finance and strategy professional, currently serving as Head of Corporate Development at Pets at Home. He previously worked in Investment Banking roles at Morgan Stanley and RBC Capital Markets before moving into a Corporate Development role at Smith+Nephew. He is Treasurer Trustee and Chair of the Finance, Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee at Stonewall. He was born and raised in Montreal, Canada.

Paddy Dillon

Paddy Dillon is a director of Renew Culture, and in 2020 co-founded the Green Book initiative to help theatre-makers towards a sustainable future for theatre. He has since co-established a network of Theatre Green Books across Europe and beyond. Paddy was deputy chair, then chair of the UK Theatres Trust until 2021. He was chair of the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference 2023, a global theatre conference with events in eight global cities which took place in autumn 2023. As one of the UK’s leading theatre architects, he was responsible for the regeneration of the National Theatre in London, alongside many other projects.

Tasha Gladman

Tasha Gladman is a leading brand marketeer with over 30 years’ experience working in FMCG and Retail blue-chip companies. She specialises in brand strategy, communication and innovation across a breadth of businesses, at both local and international level. She lives locally in West Sussex and manages Flintlock, a boutique brand consultancy which she founded in 2013.

Vicki Illingworth

Vicki is currently the Executive Principal and Deputy CEO for the Chichester College Group. She is an expert in curriculum planning, SEND, student experience and safeguarding. Vicki currently sits on the Board of Creative Crawley and chairs the cultural education partnership for West Sussex (Creative County West Sussex) which focuses on collaborative working to ensure better access to arts and culture for young people.

Vicki serves on the Nominations Committee and is the designated CFT trustee for Safeguarding.

Rear Admiral John Lippiett CB CBE

John had a 36-year career in the Royal Navy, including service in the Falklands War. He is the author of ‘War and Peas: Letters from the Falklands War’ and now travels worldwide, lecturing on maritime history. He was formerly the Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust and continues as its Vice-President. In addition, he is a patron of the Nautical Training Corps, a Vice-President of the Weald & Downland Living Museum and a former trustee of the Royal Mint Museum and a governor of Bedales School.

John serves as the Chair of the CFT Development Committee.

Caro Newling OBE

Caro Newling has had a long career in theatre and production and currently oversees Neal Street Productions’ theatrical development and production. Caro co-established and ran the Donmar Warehouse with Sam Mendes from 1992 – 2002, producing over 70 productions with multiple transfers to the West End and Broadway. She previously held roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Almeida Theatre, Ballet Rambert, The Royal Opera House/Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and Polka Theatre.

Caro is currently Chair of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design. She was President of the Society of London Theatre 2014 – 2017 and a trustee of the National Theatre 2003 – 2010; her previous board memberships included Adventures in Motion Pictures and Made in Brighton.

In 2017 Caro Newling was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and in 2018 she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to Drama.

Nick Pasricha

Nick lives in Chichester and is a qualified accountant and former partner at Ernst & Young, heading up their Global Business Advisory Group. He is the current Chair of the Sussex Wildlife Trust and since 2020 has served on the board of Lumos, a worldwide charity founded by JK Rowling.

Nick serves on the CFT Finance & Audit and Development Committees.

Philip Shepherd

Philip is a chartered accountant and experienced board adviser to companies in the hospitality, culture and leisure sectors. He was formerly a partner at PwC. His portfolio includes being a Trustee at Culture24, a charity that provides digital advice and services to museums and cultural institutions, and acting as a board adviser to 59 Productions, an award-winning theatrical design studio and production company.

Philip chairs the Finance & Audit Committee and serves on the Nominations Committee.

Stephanie Street

Stephanie is an award-winning actress and playwright, working across the UK and in Singapore (where she was born and raised) with a focus on making theatre that challenges the way we see and live in the world. Her first play, Sisters, was a verbatim work representing the lives of British Muslim women post-9/11 and her most recent play, Dragonflies, about global migration, won Best New Script at the Life! Theatre Awards. She also writes a column for The Stage. Stephanie co-founded The Act for Change Project, the landmark campaign charity for improved representation and diversity in the performing arts.

Stephanie is the Board nominated lead on Diversity and Inclusion.

Hugh Summers

Hugh Summers is a Production Coordinator for Wessex Grove, a theatre production company working in the West End, on Broadway and worldwide. He has previously worked in production roles across London, including with Park Theatre, the Boulevard, Colin Ingram Ltd and Sonia Friedman Productions as well as producing a series of concerts at the Apollo Theatre as part of Nica Burns’ Rising Stars Festival. Prior to joining the Board of Trustees, Hugh was a member of CFT’s inaugural Youth Advisory Board.