Board of Trustees

27 August 08

David Parfitt

Chairman

David has worked as an independent film producer for 20 years. Film credits include Henry V, Peter's Friends, Swan Song, Much Ado About Nothing, The Madness of King George, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Twelfth Night, The Wings Of The Dove, Shakespeare In Love, (winner of Seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and four British Academy Awards including Best Film), Gangs of New York (Production Consultant), I Capture the Castle and Chasing Liberty.

He is currently in post production with A Bunch of Amateurs starring Burt Reynolds, Samatha Bond, Derek Jacobi and Imelda Staunton. He is Executive Producer on Dean Spanley which finished shooting in December 2007. In April 2007 he produced, alongside Finola Dwyer, the critically acclaimed theatre production of Elling at The Bush Theatre and in the West End.

Before moving into film production, David worked as an actor and theatre producer.

Hilary Bevan Jones

Deputy Chairman

Hilary's Drama producer credits include State Of Play, Cracker, Dad, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Secret World of Michael Fry, Butterfly Collectors, May 33rd, All In The Game and the Emmy award-winning The Girl In The Cafe. Hilary also produced the comedy Red Dwarf. With a BA in Psychology, she joined the BBC as a floor assistant. There she worked her way up the production ladder on such programmes as Not The Nine O'Clock News, Black Adder, Merlin, Shakespeare, Open Golf, Blue Peter and Top of the Pops. She has her own production company Tightrope, which she runs with long-time collaborator Paul Abbott.

Tim Corrie

On leaving Bristol University, Tim Corrie was a founder member of The Drama Department. He went straight to work for John Boorman as his assistant/researcher in BBC Bristol, subsequently working in various capacities on a number of films including Isadora Duncan (Karel Reisz) and The Adventurers (Lewis Gilbert). This was followed by a short period at Paramount Pictures in London working alongside Max Setton. On leaving Paramount, he was invited to join Fraser and Dunlop Scripts , as it then was, to help develop that Agency in the realms of film and television. More than thirty years on, and after six years as Co-Chairman - a role he recently stepped down from - he is still there (although the company is now PFD).

Finola Dwyer

Finola Dwyer is an award-winning producer of feature films, television dramas and documentaries. Born in New Zealand, Finola was a film editor before turning to producing, and moved to the UK in the early 90's. Her producer credits include Iain Softley's acclaimed debut Backbeat and Stephan Elliott's Welcome to Woop Woop (Official Selection, Cannes Film Festival). Finola produced The Lost Son directed by Chris Menges and Me Without You, directed by Sandra Goldbacher. She produced the festival favourite Hamburg Cell and produced Stephen Woolley's directorial debut Stoned (Edinburgh Film Festival). Last year Finola produced the Golden Globe nominated Tsunami: The Aftermath. Finola has received BAFTA nominations for Backbeat and Me Without You.

Michael Harris

Michael Harris is Treasurer of the British Academy. He runs his own Soho-based business consultancy practice advising companies and high profile individuals in the media sector. He is also a Trustee and a Treasurer of Comic Relief.

Ray Maguire

Ray Maguire is Senior Vice President/Managing Director, SCE UK. His career in the Games industry started with Virgin Mastertronic in the late 1980’s. When SEGA (UK) was formed he became a Sales Manager and had the pleasure and privilege of introducing the Mega Drive and the world of Sonic the Hedgehog to UK gamers.

Ray joined Sony Electronic Publishing Limited in 1993 as Director of Sales for Europe. He was instrumental in setting up the infrastructure of SEPL in Europe prior to the establishment of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). SCE was then formed in 1994, and in 1995 Ray was promoted to Managing Director of SCE UK to manage the launch of PlayStation 1. In 1997 Ray was again promoted to Vice President/Managing Director and, in August 2002, he was appointed Senior Vice President/Managing Director of SCE UK. In addition to the UK, Ray oversees all the sales and marketing activities for the regions of Ireland, Nordic and Benelux.

Krishnendu Majumdar

Krishnendu has been uniquely trained on both the prestigious BBC Production Trainee scheme and the highly selective ITN News Trainee scheme. At the BBC he worked on a range of output including Watchdog, Newsnight Review, Art That Shook The World and at BBC Films and BBC Radio Drama. At ITN he worked as a producer across all of the output - ITV News, Channel 4 News and Five News.

Films produced and directed include: Michael Howard: No More Mr Nasty; Coked Up Britain and the BAFTA-nominated Who You Callin' A Nigger?. He is currently developing authored drama with Tony Garnett at World Productions, Ruth Caleb at the BBC and Kate Ogborn at Revolution Films/C4. Described by Screen International as "one of the British film industry's brightest hopes" in their 'Stars of Tomorrow' list.

Nik Powell

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, Jordan's Oscar-nominated & Cannes award winning Mona Lisa and Neil Jordan's 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.

Sophie Turner Laing

Sophie joined Sky in 2003 as Director of Film Channels & Acquisitions. She was promoted to Deputy Managing Director, Sky Channels and Services in 2004 and was appointed to the Executive Committee of Sky in 2007 as Managing Director, Entertainment. Prior to joining Sky, Sophie was Controller, Programme Acquisitions at the BBC for five years (incorporating the roles of Acting Head of Business Affairs [1998], Acting Director of Marketing [2001] and Acting Director of Television [2002] into her duties). Prior to the BBC, Sophie held management roles at Flextech and was the joint-founder and Deputy Managing Director of HIT Entertainment. In addition to her current responsibilities at Sky, she is also a Governor of National Film & TV School, Co-Opted Crew Member for Variety Club (UK) and a Co-Opted Trustee of BAFTA.

John Willis

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 broadcaster WGBH. 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.