New Trustees for Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust

Following the transfer last May of Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery’s management from Carlisle City Council to a new independent charitable trust, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust are delighted to announce the appointments of a further six new Trustees, bringing the total number to eleven.
 
The newly appointed trustees are:
 
·         Paul Croft – Paul Croft has experience at Board and senior executive levels in the UK nuclear industry and the private sector. As a senior executive of British Nuclear Fuels culminating as Deputy Head of Sellafield he oversaw a major programme of organisational change which resulted in substantial service improvements and increased efficiency and effectiveness. He left BNFL in 2003 to chair the board of Gen ll, a new locally-based company that had taken over the provision of training and education services at Sellafield that had previously been provided in-house and now has a number of training contracts with organisations across Cumbria. Paul Croft is also chairman of Westlakes Properties Limited and has been Deputy Chairman of West Cumbria Development Agency and Fund.
 
·         Sir Mark Jones – Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum from May 2001 until July 2011, Sir Mark had previously been Assistant Keeper of Coins and then Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum (1974-1992), after which he became Director of the National Museums of Scotland (1992-2001). Now Master of St Cross College, Oxford, Sir Mark has a home and family links in Cumbria, and has known and taken an interest in Tullie House for more than 40 years. He is a trustee of several bodies including the National Trust and Design Council, and is a member of the Court and Council of the Royal College of Art.
 
·         Eric Robson – Present Chairman of Cumbria Tourism, and both writer and broadcaster for over thirty years, Eric Robson well-known as the presenter of Gardeners’ Question Time, and as the author – among many other books - of a history of the Anglo-Scottish border and a memoir of his time with the great fell walker A. W. Wainwright. Eric Robson is a director of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage Limited, a partner in Osprey Communications, a north of England PR agency, and a Deputy Lieutenant for Cumbria. He lives in the western Lake District.
 
·         Hannah Stewart – Hannah Stewart is a Carlisle-based artist and cultural services entrepreneur. As an artist she specialises in sculpture and large installations including public art, and her work has been exhibited in Tullie House. As an entrepreneur, she co-founded Freerange Artists Limited which provides office space and related resources at its location in Carlyle Court for the north Cumbrian creative and digital economy. Hannah Stewart is an active promoter of effective networking within the Cumbrian cultural and creative services communities and of ensuring that their voice is heard.
 
·         Professor Peter Strike – Recently-appointed Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Cumbria, Professor Strike previously held academic and executive posts at Liverpool University, Napier University (Edinburgh), Northumbria University and the University of Sunderland. By background a research scientist specialising in genetics, he has considerable experience of knowledge transfer and of developing partnerships between universities and the business community.
 
·         Caroline Thomson – Chief Operating Officer and second in command of the BBC since 2006, Caroline Thompson is responsible for the Corporation’s policy and strategy, marketing, communications, technology, audience research, personnel and all other non-programme functions apart from finance. She previously spent periods as Deputy Chief Executive of the BBC World Service (1995-2000) and with Channel 4 Television (1984-1995) as a Commissioning Editor and then Head of Corporate Affairs. Caroline Thompson has been an award-winning programme maker and is currently a Trustee of the National Gallery and a number of charitable and regulatory bodies. She has a home in Abbeytown near Carlisle and with her family is a regular visitor to Tullie House.
 
Roger Cooke, Chair of the Tulllie House Museum and Art Gallery Board of Trustees said:
 
“Our new Trustees have been selected with the assistance of recruitment consultants after public advertising and with the benefit of an intensive programme of research and face-to-face meetings. We were determined to select a Board of outstanding individuals who together bring a wide range of relevant attributes to the overall direction of Tullie House and who combine local knowledge of Carlisle and the rest of Cumbria with national profile. The new Trustees achieve just that: they bring a wealth of arts, business management, commercial, corporate governance, education, fund raising, marketing and media knowledge and experience which will be of huge benefit to the Trust in achieving its vision for Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery.”
 
The existing Trustees are Roger Cooke, Richard Spiers (Chair of the Friends of Tullie House), Andrew Smith and two members of Carlisle City Council, Cllr Joe Hendry (L) and Cllr Gareth Ellis (C).