David Anderson

David was a history teacher before he began his museum career as an educator at Brighton & Hove museums. He moved to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and then the V&A, where he was Director of Learning and Interpretation. In 2010 he joined Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales as Director General. He is now a visiting Professor at the School of Governance at Cardiff University.

David Anderson is a Board member of Creative and Cultural Skills and a member of the Advisory Committee of British Council Wales. He has written many articles on museums and cultural policy, a UK government report on museums and learning, and two children’s books.

Tim Aspinall

After a successful career as a lawyer Tim now has a portfolio of business interests.

He runs Aspinall Consultants Limited, advising professional services firms on strategy, acquisitions, and performance improvement. He is Chair of NAHL Group plc, an AIM quoted company, and a non-executive director of Kuro Health Limited, a fast growth private company.

Tim has been a solicitor for over 30 years. He was previously Managing Partner of DMH Stallard LLP where he led its transformation into one of the UK’s most respected mid-market law firms, negotiating many successful acquisitions to accelerate growth. The firm won many awards and Tim is now a consultant there.

Tim is passionate about the arts and history. He has been active in the charity sector for many years.  He is general counsel for English National Opera, at the London Coliseum, and was until recently a non-executive director of Brighton Dome & Festival.  He lives in Brighton with his wife Polly.

Lord Bassam of Brighton

Steve Bassam, Lord Bassam of Brighton, is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and member of the House of Lords. Steve was elected a Brighton councillor and rose to become Leader of Brighton, then Brighton and Hove Council, from 1987 until 1999. He was promoted to the frontbenches as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office in 1999 and in 2001 was appointed a Government whip in the Lords. In 2008, he was promoted to the role of Labour Chief Whip. When Labour moved into Opposition in 2010, he became Opposition Chief Whip.

Prior to his political career he has worked as a social worker and legal adviser for local authorities and in management consultancy. He is a keen cricketer and supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club and was instrumental in the campaign to get the club a new stadium. He supports the Brighton Festival has three children and lives in Brighton with his family.

Michael Bedingfield (Chair) DL

Michael is a Deputy Lieutenant of East Sussex, born in Brighton and lives in the City Centre, where he enjoys a view of the Royal Pavilion. He attended Hove Grammar School, before starting his career at American Express. Following his career in financial services, he moved his focus to travel and tourism, as marketing director with leading brands including P&O Cruises, VisitBritain and the Royal Automobile Club, and as chief executive of Tourism South East.

More recently, Michael has been involved with numerous trusteeships and has more than 20 years’ experience in the arts, charity and museums sectors, including six years as a trustee of Brighton Dome and festival. Today, he chairs HMS Warrior 1860 and is a trustee of Martlets Hospice.

Rebecca Crook

Rebecca has a wealth of heritage and arts experience having sat on The National Trust Strategic Advisory Board for 4 years. She co-founded Saltean Lido CIC sitting as Chair for 6 years, overseeing the country’s only Grade II* listed lido re-opening.

Rebecca is a NED with Transport for London Museum and a Trustee with The Martlets. In her day job she works in London as Chief Growth Officer for Somo, a digital transformation business working with some of the world’s best-known brand across digital products and experiences. She sits on the Board and has a global responsibility for growth, business development, marketing, brand and PR.

Davinder Dhillon OBE, DL

Davinder was born in Tanzania and travelled to England in 1967 when he was 14 years old. He came to Brighton in 1973 to study and has lived here since then. He is married with 2 children, a son and a daughter.

Davinder retired in 2012, having worked as a teacher in Special Education for over 30 years.

A major part of his voluntary work is taken up by organising the annual Chattri Service on a memorial build on the Downs in memory of the Indian soldiers who fought in the First World War but died whilst convalescing in Military Hospitals, including the Royal Pavilion, in Brighton.

Atiya Gourlay

Atiya has a long-standing connection to Brighton & Hove, beginning 1988 as a student at the University of Sussex. She is currently Chair of south Asian classical dance company, Amina Khayyam Dance Company, and is former Chair of the Brighton Festival of World Sacred Music.

Atiya leads equality and partnerships in Children’s Services at East Sussex County Council and has also been involved in arts and culture in both a personal and professional capacity. She started her career at TV Asia, moving to Liberty as Press Officer at a pivotal moment for human rights in the UK. She worked in Brussels with the Local Government Association and then at the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, supporting capacity-building for new parliaments. Atiya returned to the UK to start a family, working as Public Consultation lead for Lewes District Council, moving finally to East Sussex County Council where she has held several roles over the years.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, she came to the UK at the age of 15. She has also lived in Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Bhutan and France, and has always taken a global approach to understanding her local environment.

She lives in Brighton & Hove with her husband and daughter.

Amanda Grimshaw BEM

Amanda was a secondary school history teacher before she began her museum career as an officer at Brighton & Hove Museums. She has had six years’ experience of working at the Royal Pavilion and is passionate about the buildings, its collections and history.

Amanda was a founder member of the Brighton & Hove Heritage Commission and formerly a trustee at the Brighton Dome and Festival.

Amanda has undertaken extensive research on the Royal Pavilion as an Indian Military Hospital during the First World War and has been giving talks on this for many years highlighting the diversity of the historic buildings.

Amanda was elected as a Labour Councillor in 2019 and was appointed Deputy Chair of the Tourism Equality Communities and Culture Committee.

Now in her second elected term she is a Councillor for Hangleton and Knoll and the Labour groups Chief Whip and once again the Armed Forces Champion of the city.

Sussex University graduate Amanda was awarded a BEM (British Empire Medal) for her work as a Learning Ambassador for the Learning and Work Institute.

Brad Irwin

Brad is a museum professional with over 20 years’ experience of leading, devising and delivering programmes across a rich spectrum of cultural contexts in both the UK and abroad.

He is currently the Natural History Museum’s Head of International Partnerships where he is responsible for global advocacy, diplomacy and relationship building. Recent projects include working with the World Economic Forum and forming a new strategic partnership with the Museum Nacional Brazil. He previously oversaw all front facing education teams at the Natural History Museum, as well as working in cultural and educational organisations across Auckland, New Zealand.

He has a Masters of Education and is currently completing a Doctorate in Museology from Kings College London exploring the international work of UK national museums.

Councillor Alan Robins

Alan was born in Portslade, went to school in Portslade and has lived there all his life. He considers himself a true Brightonian. He left school at 16 years of age and worked in retail and sales for over 40 years.  In 2011 he was elected as Labour Councillor for Portslade – a rare occurrence for a Councillor to be serving the ward he was born in.

Alan is Chair of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture (TECC) Committee and was elected as Mayor of Brighton & Hove at the Annual Council meeting in May 2020.

Since joining the Board of Trustees of the Royal Pavilion and Museums Foundation in July 2015, as an Ex-Officio member, Alan has grown to appreciate the hard work, dedication and passion of everyone involved in delivering the Brighton & Hove museums Service.

Shaun Romain

Shaun’s interests focus upon cultural consumption and how communities and populations engage with different cultural, creative and educational opportunities. Over the past 25 years he has been involved with over 200 projects from national government reviews to local community projects.

Shaun has extensive experience of working with the cultural heritage sector in Sussex, having started at Charleston (home of Bloomsbury) before moving onto SAM – an Arts Council funded audience development agency based in Brighton.

Since 2011 Shaun has run his own consultancy, Sedum Consulting and has been involved with numerous large-scale projects including the evaluation of Hull 2017 (UK City of Culture) alongside redeveloping learning and engagement at IWM and the Serpentine Galleries. He is currently one of two Creative Programme Directors at the National Trust focussed upon change management and greater public accessibility.

Sue Shanks

Sue had a long career as a youth worker, youth work manager in different areas of the country and latterly as a youth work teacher at Chichester University and writer on youth and community work ( known then as Sue Robertson). She has kept her interest in youth work and is currently a trustee of Brighton Youth Centre and of Sussex Clubs for Young People. She is also a local authority governor at Homewood College.

In 2011 she was elected to Brighton and Hove City Council as the Green member for Withdean Ward and was the Lead member for Children’s services for 4 years. Re-elected in 2019 now for St Peters and Nort Laine ward she is the current Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

She lives in the city with her husband who is also involved in voluntary trusteeships,  has three children and two grandchildren and enjoys spending time with them, walking on the Downs with her dog , sea swimming, reading, theatre, jigsaws and knitting.

Dr Angela Smith

Angela enjoyed a long senior executive/professional career across Commercial, Professional and Public services sectors. She retired from full time executive roles in 2017 to embark on a part-time/Non-Executive portfolio and a musical performance career.

Angela is Chair of the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust Finance and Governance Committee and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee at the East Sussex Colleges Group.

She is delighted to be supporting the outstanding heritage, culture and arts environment of the Brighton & Hove region. As part of the regional music scene, Angela hopes to encourage even more music representation across the work of the Trust. She has three children and lives in Brighton.

Jane Weeks

Jane is a museums and heritage consultant. Clients include the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England, the Museums Association, University College London, and the British Institute for Archaeology in Ankara.

Jane began her career at the Museum of London, later joining the National Maritime Museum.  She has been a consultant since 1994 and acted as Museums and Heritage Adviser to the British Council from 2000-2017.

She is a former chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Committee for the South East, and a former Deputy Chair of the Churches Conservation Trust and Pallant House Gallery. She is a trustee of the James Henry Green Trust and a member of the Royal Geographical Society’s Collections Advisory Group.

Sue Wilkinson OBE

Sue Wilkinson read history at Cambridge before training as a teacher and undertaking the museum studies course at Leicester. After teaching in secondary schools she worked as education officer at the Tower of London and set up and ran the South Eastern Museums Education Unit.

In 1999 Sue joined the Museum, Library and Archive Council (MLA) as Director of Policy where she led and managed major development and investment programmes for the cultural sector. She left the MLA to join the scientific publisher Elsevier as the UK Director of Academic and Government Alliances.

In 2014 Sue became CEO of national charity The Reading Agency which runs programmes aimed at tackling life’s big challenges through the proven power of reading. Sue retired from The Reading Agency in 2019 and was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Years Honours for services to literature and public libraries. Sue is also a trustee of Historic Royal Palaces.

Ellie Hart

Ellie is a producer and programmer with experience working on cross-artform participatory projects with schools, communities and emerging artists. Ellie has previously worked in theatres and arts venues including the Young Vic Theatre, Glyndebourne and the Barbican Centre. Ellie is currently the Speak Up Manager at the National Theatre where she oversees a large scale national co-creation secondary schools programme, Speak Up. Ellie’s work is rooted in opening up opportunities for people to access the arts and culture.

Ellie previously lived in Brighton and has close family members there, she can still be found in one of the many brilliant coffee shops around the city regularly! Ellie is interested in learning more about the Museum and Heritage sector and looks forward to bringing her experience working in arts participation to Brighton and Hove Museums Board at an exciting time of change for the Trust.

Dillon Patel

Dillon is passionate about museums and improving their accessibility amongst the general public. He has a first class degree from the University of Warwick in Ancient History and Archaeology and has undertaken placements at the British Museum, Buckinghamshire Museum and the University of Genoa where he formed part of an international team excavating at Pompeii. He was President of the Warwick Classics Society and has researched the role of women in Roman society, politics and finance.

Dillon is currently a Civil Servant and loves the Brighton area, having frequently visited as a student and now a young professional. He is looking forward to contributing to the board over the next two years.