Creative England Appoints Establishment Board And Director

Creative England Chairman John Newbigin has announced the appointment of a new Establishment Board for Creative England, made up of the Chairs of the existing Regional Screen Agencies.
This Board will oversee the work of an Establishment Director for Creative England to ensure that a fully functioning organisation is ready to replace the existing network of Regional Screen Agencies on October 1 2011.
Caroline Norbury, Chief Executive of South West Screen, will be seconded to this interim role of Establishment Director, which will be effective immediately and will run for a maximum of six months.
John Newbigin said: "Creative England is a new organisation with an imaginative new remit set out by the Government. But our first responsibility is to ensure that we have the people and resources to replace the Regional Screen Agencies in supporting film-making and film culture across England.
"Until now we have relied on the goodwill and voluntary hard work of the existing Screen Agency CEOs and their staffs in setting up Creative England but we now need a full-time, fully committed executive if we are to get to the starting line by the agreed date of October 1.
"Caroline has played a central role in Creative England's development to date and her Board have generously agreed to her secondment so that she can focus on that role temporarily. Mehjabeen Price, South West Screen's Director of Finance and Operations, will become Acting Chief Executive Officer whilst Caroline Norbury is seconded. She will be tasked with setting up the overall business plan and staffing structure of Creative England's film-related activity, whilst beginning to build capacity for the broader Creative England vision and securing funds for wider creative industries activity. She will be supported in this role by the CEOs and staffs of the existing Regional Screen Agencies and will report to the Creative England Establishment Board.
"We are absolutely committed to creating an organisation that reflects local and regional needs and strengths, building on the work of the Regional Screen Agencies over the last ten years, but launching the new organisation as a single entity in the first instance allows us to reduce cost and time pressures while ensuring a continuity of support for film activity across the English regions. This process, and Caroline's appointment, enjoys the support of our national partner organisation, the BFI."
Amanda Nevill, Director of the BFI, said: "In its forward plan, the BFI Board will focus on bringing valuable support to film across the regions, so we are heavily dependent on an effective infrastructure being created to help us deliver that. We pay tribute to the past work of the Screen Agencies and also their recent achievement in the huge task of working towards a new structure. We welcome the creation of this new post of interim Establishment Director and out our support behind Caroline in the role."
(KMcA)