Our Board
Phil Beeston is Supply Chain Controller at Carlsberg UK. Phil has worked for Carlsberg for 19 years in a variety of finance roles. He is responsible for the development of the Leeds Brewery site, as well as providing support to the Production Director in delivering the ambitious targets for one of Carlsberg’s largest breweries in Northapmton. Phil holds a BA(Hons) Business Studies from Wolverhampton. For 15 years Phil has been involved on the Leeds site and is pleased to be so closely involved in this project to create an exciting new use for an iconic building in Tetley’s history.
Jean Dent OBE has recently retired after 40 years service at Leeds City Council. For the last nine of those years she was a director and the last three was the Director of City Development, with responsibility for the physical,economic and cultural development of the city. She is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and has had an active role , during her career, in many regeneration and cultural schemes which have helped transform Leeds. She is now a governor at Leeds Metropolitan University; a governor at two primary schools which have federated and a consultant with the regeneration consultancy Eye. Jean was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year's Honours List for her services to local government.
Lubaina Himid MBE is an Artist and Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. During the past 30 years she has exhibited widely both in Britain and internationally. She represented Britain at the 5th Havana Biennale and has work in several public collections including the Tate Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum. She was previously a member of the Council of Tate Liverpool and a Trustee of The Lowry Arts Centre, Manchester and Matt’s Gallery, London. Since 2004 she has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Heather Jackson is CEO & Founder, An Inspirational Journey. Heather is the Founder and Chief Executive of The Women's Business Forum, one of four initiatives from An Inspirational Journey, which seeks to increase the number of skilled women working at the top of corporate Britain. An Inspirational Journey, launched in 2011, fuelled by the Royal Bank of Scotland, unites companies, their women and their male business leaders. It aims to mend the leaking pipeline of talented women and ensure organisations have the best talent to lead them, regardless of gender without need for mandatory quotas enforced by legislation.
Gerald Jennings heads the Leeds office of Land Securities, the UK’s largest Real Estate Investment Trust and has responsibility for overseeing the investment performance of the shopping centres in the North and Scotland. Major assets include White Rose, Leeds, The Bridges, Sunderland Bon Accord, Aberdeen and Buchanan Galleries, Glasgow. Development activity is currently focused on Trinity Leeds, with other key projects being actively pursued across the portfolio.
Nigel McClea (Chairman) Nigel’s legal career spans nearly 40 years and prior to his retirement in 2010, he was the head of Pinsent Masons’ 350 strong Leeds office where he remains a consultant today. Nigel was legally responsible for some of the largest developments in the Leeds and Yorkshire region, including the Jorvik Viking Centre (for York Archaeological Trust), Thorpe Park Business Park, the Royal Armouries Museum, and the Carnegie Pavilion at Headingley Cricket Stadium. Nigel is a passionate advocate of Leeds and the Yorkshire region. He is a former Chair of Marketing Leeds and is the current Chair of Ahead Partnership. He was a founder Trustee of The Hepworth Wakefield, is a current member of the advisory board of the Harrogate International Centre, and is lay representative to the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire. Nigel is also a non-executive Director of Sterling Group, a property development and investment group. As Chair of PSL, Nigel has contributed countless hours in guidance as PSL moved toward charitable status, and in our establishment of trading arm, PSL Enterprises Ltd.
Harry Meadley is an artist born in Leeds in 1987. He studied Fine Art at Leeds College of Art & Design from 2005-6, and Leeds Metropolitan University from 2006-9. He has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe. He currently co-runs the blip blip blip exhibitions programme at East Street Arts Patrick Studios and teaches on the Fine Art Pathway of the Foundation Programme at Leeds College of Art.
Councillor Adam Ogilvie represents the Beeston and Holbeck ward in south Leeds where he also lives. Since May 2010, he has been the Executive Board Member for Leisure on Leeds City Council, a portfolio which includes arts, culture and creative industries, museums and galleries, events, parks and countryside, sport and recreation, libraries and cemeteries and crematoria. Adam is on the Board of South Leeds Community Radio, Beeston Festival and Holbeck Gala Committees and Chair of Leeds Grand Theatre. His non-council background is in urban regeneration, having managed regeneration programmes in Yorkshire and London with a particular focus on employment, training, coaching and mentoring.
Simon Wallis is Director of The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire's major new art gallery designed by renowned architect David Chipperfield and shortlisted for the 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize. Simon previously worked as Senior Exhibitions Organiser at the ICA, London, Exhibitions Curator at Tate Liverpool and Curator at Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge. He was educated at Chelsea School of Art, London, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Manchester. He has organised numerous group and solo show exhibitions by high-profile artists including Mark Wallinger, winner of the 2007 Turner Prize. Simon writes and lectures regularly on contemporary art.