Trustees
Marcus James
Chair of Trustees
Marc is an experienced early years leader, with 14 years within a variety of educational roles, with a focus on inclusion and diversity. Marc has a passion for creative arts within education, and ensuring all children have access to the same high quality learning opportunities. Marc was the ‘Head of Early Years’ for the U.K’s first nursery group for the television and film industry, leading the set up of nurseries for Warner Brothers and Netflix, designing the educational programme to elevate creative arts experiences for young children. Marc also worked as a Support Manager for The London Early Years Foundation, and sits on the board of MITEY, a national steering group to attract more men into early years.
Marcia Bennie
Trustee
Marcia has worked with arts and educational organisations all her professional life. She spent 19 years with the Orange Tree Theatre In Richmond as part of the small team who raised the funds to build the new theatre from its origins in a room over a pub, and from there went on to help Reed’s School in Cobham raise funds to build a music centre in the school’s campus. Since 2005 she has acted as a fundraising consultant, and her freelance career has included working extensively with The Voices Foundation and VocalEyes, as well as other clients such as the Actors Centre, the EUYO, ABCD, Ocean Maths, Theatre Peckham and more recently with Working Chance and Action on Disability.
Matthew Brookes
Trustee & Finance Director
Matt is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has had an extensive finance career at various well known companies including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Disney, the BBC and Hasbro. He has previously been pro bono CFO, Treasurer, Trustee and advisor to other charities and is passionate about the positive impact the creative arts can have on children, including his own son.
Paul Hayday
Trustee
Paul is a violin expert. After 15 years working as a Director and specialist at Sotheby’s Musical Instruments, Paul and Tim Ingles set up Ingles & Hayday in 2012. Paul continues to act as a consultant to Sotheby’s for matters concerning musical instruments.
Karen Price
Trustee
Karen Price has been involved in youth arts and community projects for nearly 20 years and has continued to develop this interest alongside her freelance work in Design and Applied Arts. She is a passionate believer in the importance of creativity in developing both personal and academic skills and is in constant admiration of the endlessly original and imaginative work in arts that young people produce. Karen currently divides her time between working as a teacher of Art and Design Technology, developing her own artistic practice and studying for a MSt in the History of Design at Oxford University.
Past members
Andrew Potter (1949 – 2016)
Founding Chair
Andrew was the first chairman of the board at Creative Futures from March 2012 – Februrary 2016.
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