BIRD & GORTON - Key Persons
Ceri holds an award-winning literature PhD and her research now focuses on developing collaborative, creative, tech-confident leadership in the cultural and creative industries. She is co-author of the Manifesto for Good Online Sessions.
Ceri is a user-centred design specialist, Clore Fellow and IDEO/University of Pennsylvania Creative Impact Fellow who is committed to building people's creative capacity to collaborate, solve problems, and make positive change happen.
Job Titles:
- Business Development Specialist
- Freelance Business Coach, Creative
Ellen is a freelance business coach, creative facilitator and strategist with a background in cultural, creative and social entrepreneurship.
Job Titles:
- Associate Editor, EXPEDITION Bright Series Publication ( University of the Arts, London )
- Author, Learning from Rocket Science, Arts Professional
- Author, Supporting Future Scenarios - Culture and Climate Change
- Producer, Culture & Climate Change: Narratives - Culture and Climate Change
- Steering Group Member, Meeting Ethical and Reputational Challenges ( What Next? Supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation )
- Wellcome Trust Clore Fellow
Hannah is passionate about supporting leaders to fulfil their potential. She has led over 100 artists and scientists on cross-disciplinary climate change expeditions in the Arctic, Andes and Western Isles of Scotland and she devised the Southbank Centre's Women of the World (WOW) Mentoring Programme which has now been included in 65 WOW festivals across 6 continents.
Hannah (Bird) and Ceri (Gorton) met when they were Clore Fellows in 2014, bonded over a shared love of Lego, and have been working together ever since. Bird & Gorton bring together tailored teams of specialists to ensure each project benefits from the expertise and capacity that it needs.
Hannah Bird is a Wellcome Trust Clore Fellow with 15 years of experience developing new programmes and strategy across cultural, educational and scientific organisations.
Hannah enjoys supporting good ideas to flourish in order to imagine new and better solutions to complex challenges.
Job Titles:
- Producer
- Senior Theatre Producer
Holly Aston is a senior theatre producer, Theatre Consortium Clore Fellow and RD1st qualified coach with over 15 years of experience working in the arts & culture, non-profit and commercial theatre sectors.
Holly has produced and managed large scale productions, national programmes and special projects across the UK, and internationally, for companies including the Young Vic, Sky Studios, National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and RSC.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Coach
- Performance Coach
Isabel is an experienced performance coach, focused on getting positive results for clients. She specialises in leadership development, cultural change, and enabling positive team dynamics.
Matt works with organisations to demystify digital, build digital agility and learn Design Thinking.
With a practical, insightful and supportive approach, Matt helps organisations to embrace digital and move forward strategically and sustainably.
Job Titles:
- Freelance Audience Insight Consultant
- User Researcher
Meriel Royal is a freelance Audience Insight Consultant at Culture Bulb.
Meriel specialises in helping cultural organisations understand their audiences not only from primary research and evaluation, but crucially from underused data that they have already collected. She is passionate about bringing audiences to life through data and insight, so that arts organisations can put their users - whether physical visitors, digital users or even retail customers - at the heart of their strategy and decision making. Meriel specialises in audience research strategies, creative evaluation techniques, mixed-methods research, evaluation frameworks, design thinking, theory of change models, and finding actionable insight in a wide range of data sets.
Job Titles:
- Collaboration & Inclusivity Specialist
Sandeep Mahal is a highly experienced, collaborative and inclusive leader with over ten years' experience of working at senior levels in the arts, libraries and cultural sector.
Until recently, she was Director of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature where she oversaw the development and growth of Nottingham as a vital place of creative exchange and celebration for literature, as well as providing creative and strategic leadership of the organisation.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive & Artistic Director - Sadler 's Wells