John Newbigin
John Newbigin works as a free lance journalist, and a strategic consultant for the cultural industries.
John joined Channel 4 Television as Head of Corporate Relations in January 2000. Channel 4 was created by Act of Parliament in 1982. It is a publicly owned corporation whose board is appointed by the television regulator – OFCOM – in agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport. Unlike the BBC, Channel 4 receives no public funding, but is funded entirely by its own commercial activities.
Prior to that, John was Special Adviser to Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Rt Hon Chris Smith MP. His previous jobs have included working as an executive for David Puttnam’s film company Enigma (1992-97), Policy Adviser to Neil Kinnock, then Leader of the Labour Party (1986-92), journalist and youth worker.
John has been appointed the Chair of Creative England, a new nationwide network based on three key hubs; Creative North, Creative Central and Creative South; which will work with local business networks and sector organisations, to deliver cultural and business-development objectives.
Graham Hitchen
Graham Hitchen is an independent project leader, working across the public sector, specialising in strategic management, relationship building, and high-level facilitation and negotiation.
He was formerly a Project Director at the London Development Agency, leading
the development of an international design and innovation programme. While at the LDA, he set up and ran the Creative London programme, and led an international research project with Toronto, New York, Barcelona and Berlin. He was also head of the Agency’s work in Manufacturing and Production Industries, and was chair of the RDAs’ Creative Industries network, and chaired the RDAs’ Design advisory group with the Design Council.
He now runs a successful consultancy business, °directional thinking, advising agencies and organisations on strategic and major project development. His current or recent clients include the Technology Strategy Board, the London Development Agency, NESTA, King’s College London, and Ravensbourne.
Marice Cumber
Marice Cumber is a freelance consultant who specialises in the development and delivery of education, enterprise and employability support projects for the creative and cultural industries.
Marice developed and established Own-it, the IP advice and guidance service for creative businesses, in 2004. Prior to this she devised the concept, set up and managed the Enterprise Centre for the Creative Arts (ECCA), the business support programme for students and graduates of University of the Arts London. In 2010, Marice led on the development and delivery of Futurising, the first ever enterprise, employability and opportunities festival for the creative industries. All three projects were based at the University of the Arts London.
Marice started off her career in education as a course director in enterprise management for the arts provision at University of the Arts London and on graduation from art college ran her own design business for 12 years.