Hall For Cornwall Trustees

This month HFC has welcomed three new trustees to its Board. Alan Davey CBE, the controller of BBC Radio 3; Vin Govender a leading technology and business expert; and James Bennett, a former HFC staff member, have attended their first meeting as formal members of the Hall for Cornwall Board of Trustees.

Initially set up during the 1990’s to lead the fund-raising campaign to create Hall For Cornwall, members of the board have played a key role in developing the theatre and setting the overall direction of the organisation during the past 30 years.

Our current trustees, led by joint chairs Chris Pomfret OBE and Dame Rosemary Squire DBE, have worked closely with the HFC leadership team to develop our plans to refurbish the building and theatre, and secure the funding we need to deliver our ambitious £20 million redevelopment project.

They join an illustrious list of former trustees, including Dennis Arbon MBE, former Chair and President of the Board who donated Upton Towans beach to Hall For Cornwall to help raise funds to support the theatre; David Brierley CBE, former general manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company; actor Jenny Agutter OBE; international soprano and music teacher Wendy Eathorne; Sue Hill, founder of WildWorks; James, Lord St Aubyn; Peter Davies MBE DL, now Chair of the Cornwall Maritime Museum, and film producer Martin Schute who is remembered for bringing in the Oscar awarded to cinematography for Fiddler on the Roof for display in the foyer when the film was shown in the venue.

It is fantastic to see the enthusiasm of our new trustees for the redevelopment project and we are looking forward to working with them during this next phase of our journey.

So who are our new trustees?

Alan Davey CBE

Vin Govender

James Bennet

Alan was appointed as controller of BBC Radio 3 in January 2015 following six years as Chief Executive of Arts Council England. Before then he worked at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department of National Heritage and the Department of Health. A passionate music fan, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the arts in 2015.

Alan describes himself on Twitter as a “northern bloke who thinks the arts really do matter.”  He says he has long admired our success in bringing fantastic performances and championing  Cornish artists and is delighted to support us in achieving our aim of serving the people of Cornwall in an even better way in the future.

Vin has extensive experience in using new technologies to help businesses to grow and has worked with companies in the UK, US, Australia and mainland Europe. He has also been involved with building new theatres and major capital refurbishment projects and will be bringing his expertise to help us to enhance the experience for our customers, both on and off the stage.

James was a member of staff at HFC and has previously been the staff representative on the Board. He is passionate about the theatre and acting and has worked as a supporting artist on a number of film and TV series. We are delighted he will now be bringing his passion and enthusiasm to support our exciting plans for the future.

As you know ours is a very ambitious as well as a very exciting project. While 90% of the £19.8m re-build target has been raised, we still need to raise a further £1.8m to turn our aspirations for a new theatre a reality. Over the coming months we will be launching a series of initiatives for people to get involved and support our project and our trustees will be supporting our fund raising campaign.