Board of Trustees

02 October 12

John Willis

Chairman of the Academy

John Willis is Chief Executive of Mentorn Media and Group Creative Director of Tinopolis plc. John started his career at Yorkshire Television where he directed a string of award winning documentaries including Johnny Go Home and Alice - A Fight for Life. In 1988 he moved to Channel 4 as Controller of Factual Programmes before being promoted to Director of Programmes in 1993. During his time at Channel 4 successes included Trainspotting, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Cutting Edge, Father Ted, Big Breakfast and True Stories. After Channel 4 he moved to United Productions as Chief Executive where United made Hornblower, Paul Watson's Wedding in the Family and Alan Bleasdale's Oliver Twist. He represented United on the Boards of both Channel 5 and ITN and, after a term on the board of American broadcaster WBGH, he returned to England in 2003 to join the BBC as Director of Factual and Learning programmes which included The Secret Policeman and Planet Earth. He was a member of the BBC Executive Committee. In late 2006 he joined Mentorn, producers of Question Time for the BBC as well as factual drama like The Government Inspector and A Very Social Secretary.

Anne Morrison

Deputy Chairman of the Academy and Chair of the Learning & Events Committee

Anne Morrison is Director, BBC Academy.

She took up the post in June 2009 to launch this new organisation within the BBC, responsible for all of its training and development.

This post follows on from her role as Project Director of Network Supply Review, the BBC's ambitious plan to grow network TV production dramatically from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by 2012.

Prior to this Anne was Controller, Documentaries and Contemporary Factual, BBC.

Under her leadership, this factual TV production department made programmes such as the drama-documentary Dunkirk, investigations such as The Secret Policeman and Whistleblower, live events such as The Queen's Jubilee and Live8; launched documentary strands One Life and Mischief; made contemporary factual programmes such as What Not To Wear and relaunched Top Gear.

Anne began her career at the BBC in 1981 as a general trainee and then joined Documentary Features where she directed and produced a range of documentaries.

She also produced Holiday and executive produced Crimewatch and Rough Justice.

Anne was educated in Belfast and Churchill College, Cambridge.

Harvey Elliott

Chair of Video Games Committee

Harvey is CEO of Marmalade, overseeing the Marmalade Game Studio developing titles for young audiences across mobile devices, and the Marmalade technology; that enables game and app developers to create rich content to release across a multitude of mobile devices, phones, tablets smart TVs and desktop computers. Prior to joining Marmalade, Harvey was VP, General Manager of Bright Light at Electronic Arts (EA) driving intellectual properties targeting family and mainstream audiences including the Harry Potter game franchise. Harvey has been in the games industry for nearly 20 years in a number of studio leadership roles and with a title roster which has included multiple Harry Potter titles, Crazy Taxi, Alias, Dakar Rally 2 and Burnout 3: Takedown amongst many more. Prior to joining EA in 2003, he was Studio General Manager of the Cheltenham Studio for Acclaim Entertainment, with overall responsibility for Acclaim’s Teesside and London studios.

Pippa Harris

Deputy Chair of the Film Committee

Pippa started her career at Jacaranda Productions as a production assistant in 1989. After that she worked as a script editor for ITV and Channel Four, before becoming Development Executive at BBC Films. She was then promoted to Executive Producer, BBC Drama Serials where her productions included The Way We Live Now, Care, The Sleeper, Love in a Cold Climate and Warriors. In 2001 she became Head of Drama Commissioning for the BBC, working alongside Jane Tranter. BBC commissions included State Of Play, The Lost Prince, Cutting It, Flesh and Blood and Daniel Deronda. In 2003, she co-founded film and theatre production company, Neal Street Productions, with partners Sam Mendes and Caro Newling. Here she heads up the film and TV side. Since forming the company, Pippa has produced films Starter For Ten, Jarhead and Stuart A Life Backwards and executive produced Things We Lost in the Fire, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go.

Medwyn Jones

Chair of Commercial Committee

Medwyn Jones is a Partner at media and entertainment law firm Harbottle & Lewis LLP (www.harbottle.com) where he heads up the Television Group. He acts for many of the leading independent UK production companies, as well as for writers, on-screen and production talent, broadcasters, programme sponsors, sports rights owners and event organisers.
He advises on all aspects of development, finance, production and distribution of television programmes and feature films, as well as sponsorship and broadcast issues, and the exploitation of secondary and ancillary rights. Medwyn spent the first part of his career involved in UK and international acquisitions, disposals and flotations before focusing on the television and film industries, and now works closely with the firm's Corporate and Tax teams on sales and acquisitions of television and film companies.

He appears as an expert in the Legalease publication Legal Experts, as well as being highly recommended in The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners legal directories.

Having graduated from Sheffield University in 1977, and after attending the College of Law, Medwyn qualified as a solicitor in 1980. He joined Harbottle & Lewis as a Partner in 1994, having previously been a partner at a leading City law firm.

Jane Lush

Deputy Chair of the Television Committee

Jane was a programme maker for many years before becoming the BBC’s Controller of Daytime where she commissioned Weakest Link and Doctors - a stepping stone for countless actors, writers, directors and crews. She left the BBC in 2005 as Controller Entertainment and Comedy responsible for Strictly Come Dancing, Catherine Tate, The Apprentice and Dragons Den. Since then, she has been growing and establishing a new indie, Splash Media.

Andrew Newman

Chair of the Television Committee

Andrew Newman started out in television as a runner on The Big Breakfast. He went on to work on some landmark entertainment and comedy shows (mainly landmark in terms of taste and decency) including The Word and Brass Eye. After a stint at the BBC, he developed The Eleven O’Clock Show at the then small indie, talkbackTHAMES and devised the Ali G strand with Sacha Baron Cohen.

In 1998 he became a Channel4 commissioning editor, overseeing programmes including TFI Friday, Da Ali G Show and The Adam and Joe Show. In 2001 he was made the Head of Programmes for the launch of E4 and commissioned shows including Banzai and Big Brother’s Little Brother and put live streaming on television for the first time. After a stint as controller at Five, he returned to Channel4 as Head of Comedy & Entertainment, commissioning shows including The Friday Night Project, 8/10 Cats, Bo Selecta, Peep Show, The IT Crowd, Fonejacker, The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year, Derren Brown, Star Stories, Charlie Brooker’s You Have Been Watching, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Dead Set and The Inbetweeners and occasionally took time out to write on the Borat and Bruno movies.
He left Channel 4 to become Chief Creative Officer at Objective Productions, makers of Derren Brown, Peep Show, The Cube, The Real Hustle, Star Stories, Undercover Princesses in late 2009.

Nik Powell

Chair of the Film Committee

In the early 1970s Nik Powell set up Virgin Records with Richard Branson. In 1982, he formed Palace Productions with Stephen Woolley and exec-produced all productions, including Neil Jordan's award-winning Company of Wolves, Oscar-nominated & Cannes award-winning Mona Lisa and Oscar-winning The Crying Game. In 1992 Nik and Stephen formed SCALA Productions where they produced Terence Davies' The Neon Bible, the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning Little Voice by Mark Herman, and Fred Schepsi's Last Orders. Nik's latest film is Ladies in Lavender starring Dame Judi Dench. He is Director of the National Film and Television School and Deputy Chair of the European Film Academy.

Tanya Seghatchian

Co-opted - Biography to follow

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