NTC Board of Directors

The NTC Board of directors are:

Directors

Neil Mundy (Chair)

Company Director
Neil Mundy has a background in the public and private sectors with professional training in accountancy, property rating and valuation and economic development.

He is currently a Non- executive Director and Chairman of Audit Committee of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and of the Port of Tyne Authority, a Non - executive Director of NF Holdings Ltd a Trustee for Age Concern and is Chair of Ellingham Parish Councillor.

His more previous positions include five years as an Executive Director with ONE North East, Group Finance Director of the DCWM Group and until 1998 Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive of Tyne and Wear Development Corporation. Prior to this he was a Senior Consultant with KPMG

He has other business interests in retailing, catering and economic and management consulting.

Sue Wilson (Vice Chair)

Company Director
Sue Wilson has a business background but currently has a wide variety of interests including property, travel, the arts and business journalism.

After twenty years in the engineering industry at Ford Motor Company and tank manufacturer, Vickers Defence Systems as Quality and Personnel Director, she became Chief Executive of The Newcastle Initiative and also wrote a column for The Journal for seven years.

Sue has served as a non-executive board member of the Inland Revenue, the RVI Hospitals Trust, Newcastle City Challenge, the North East Industrial Development Board , North of England Civic Trust, Northumbria University, One NorthEast and Northumberland Learning and Skills Council. She is currently a lay member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, a trustee of the Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery, a director of the Royal Armouries Trading Company and of NTC.

Educated at Aberdeen and Newcastle Universities, she lives in Newcastle and Barcelona and has one son, Daniel.

Sue Wilson was awarded the CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List for services to economic development in the North East of England.

Ros Maudslay

Voluntary Sector
Ros Maudslay was born in Lancashire and studied languages at Edinburgh University, with one or two not very notable appearances in dramatic society productions. She taught part-time in Edinburgh and also in Mexico where she and her family spent nearly 7 years before returning to the UK in 1985 and settling in the North East of England. She worked in marketing and translation and completed an MA in Philosophy at Durham University, also getting involved in more voluntary sector and church activities. Over the years these have included the Scottish Adoption Association, The Northern Counties Ladies Work Society, Macmillan Cancer Support and roles as Churchwarden and Parish Treasurer. She was delighted to be invited to join the board of NTC and to rekindle an interest in drama and the theatre, and also to be able to support the significant contribution the NTC makes to life in rural communities. She has first hand experience of this, having lived with her husband near Rothbury for 11 years, and retains an interest in languages and philosophy.

Roy Todd

Chairman, Alnwick District Playhouse Trust
Roy is a former Headmaster of the Duchess's High School, Alnwick. Roy, raised in rural Northumberland, was educated in Harrogate and Morpeth before graduating from Durham University and subsequently gaining an MEd. from Newcastle. He taught English and produced plays in a number of schools before becoming a Deputy Headmaster and then a Head in South Shields and finally Alnwick. He was Assistant Principal Examiner for English with the AQA board in Manchester. A founder member of the body who created the Alnwick Playhouse, he became the Vice Chairman and is currently the Chairman of the Trustees. He is also the Chairman of the Alnwick Music Society and was awarded an MBE in 1998 for Service to the Arts in Alnwick. Upon retirement he became a Reader in the Anglican Church and a part time lecturer with St. Cloud State University. Besides the theatre and the concert hall he spends time watching county cricket and rugby football and is a regular worshipper at the Society of St. Francis in Alnmouth.

Charles Linaker

Tax Consultant
Charles Linaker has been a tax partner with unw LLP, an independent firm of chartered accountants in Newcastle, and one of its predecessors since 1992. Previously, he was a senior tax manager with Price Waterhouse for 4 years and one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Taxes for more than 8 years in Oxford and London.

A member of the ICAEW Charity and Voluntary Sector Special Interest Group, he hosts regular briefings for North East charities and not for profit organisations at unw’s offices, which are delivered either by specialists from the firm or by invited outside speakers.

Charles has been a regular performer at “The Alternative Business Awards” held at the Tyne Theatre in aid of Percy Hedley and last year, billed with one of his partners as the unw Disclaimers and singing “500 Miles”, attempted heroically but unsuccessfully to win the title “Newcastle Idol” in aid of Mencap.

He lives in Cumbria with his wife and her small flock of rare breed Ryeland sheep.

Mike Buckley

Retired University Administrator
Mike is an Economics graduate of Newcastle University. He spent 30 years in university administration, mainly in Manchester University, and retired as Deputy Registrar in 1994. Activities since retirement include 4 years as Company Secretary of Contact Theatre Company, Manchester, and
fund-raising for various local organisations. He has been a dedicated theatregoer for around 60 years.

Members

Ann Coburn

Playwright and Novelist
Ann was born in North Shields, within spitting distance of the wild North Sea, and spent her childhood in the North East of England. She went to Lancaster and Leicester Universities and then taught English in a comprehensive school in Coventry. She has done many other jobs since leaving school, such as working in a library, selling ice-cream and hot-dogs at Butlins, and packing airline meals at Luton Airport, but the job she likes best and the one she has done for the longest is being a writer. A playwright and a children’s novelist, she has written seven theatre plays, including: ‘Get Up and Tie Your Fingers’, winner of the John Whiting Award; ‘The Devil’s Ground’, winner of a C.P.Taylor Bursary; and, for children, ‘Alex and the Warrior’ and ‘The Last Snow Rider’ (all toured by NTC). The latest of her twenty children’s books are ‘Glint’, a novel for older readers; and ‘Dream Team’, an ongoing series for younger readers. Her plays are published by Oberon Books. Her children’s books are published by HarperCollins, Heinemann, Random House and Walker Books. Ann is an experienced creative writing tutor and mentor, working with prose writers and playwrights of all ages. Since 2008, she has been the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newcastle University, and also tutors on their Creative Writing MA and Writing for Children courses.

After fifteen years of missing her home turf, Ann moved back to the North East with her husband John and their two children. She now lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed, once again within spitting distance of the wild North Sea. Ann finds North Northumberland a great place for a writer to live. For inspiration, it has lots of local stories, ruined castles and a violent past. For walking and thinking, it has the widest, whitest, emptiest beaches in the country, as well as high moors, bleak hills and sparkling rivers full of salmon. It can get pretty cold in winter though – and the wind can be a real bully.

You can see Ann’s personal website here. NTC accept no responsibility for the content of external websites.

Alex Ferguson

Playwright

Janine Birkett

Actor
Janine made her first professional appearance on the stage in the cast of ‘Staying Here?’ with NTC in 1992 and over the next few years she appeared regularly with the company in such classics as: ‘My Uncle Freddie’; ‘Country Voices’; and ‘Get Up And Tie Your Fingers’. A huge supporter of the company’s work, she joined the board in 1997. She still works as an actor (most recently in A Christmas Carol for the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough) but nowadays also directs and produces.

Zoe Bottrell

Cultural Leadership

Cllr Roger Styring

Northumberland County Council
Roger is a retired Chartered Engineer who spent all his working life in power stations in the electricity supply industry. He retired early in 1999 and has since taken up a number of voluntary positions with various charitable organisations in the North East. Roger is married to Jenny and they have two grown up children and three grandchildren; they have lived in Lesbury for 32 years and previously in Cramlington. Both originate from Yorkshire but Jenny’s maternal roots are in Alnwick and Alnmouth area. Roger is an elected member of the new unitary Northumberland County Council representing the Lesbury division and serves as Deputy Leader. He is a former Leader of Alnwick District Council and is very supportive of many community projects and sports activities. Roger is a governor at two local First schools in the area and is always trying to promote the well being of the staff and pupils to create happy learning environments.

Roger was recently made a Canon of Newcastle Cathedral in recognition of a number of years of activity in the Church of England and is to be licensed as a ‘Reader’ in October after a period of study.

NTC Staff:

Artistic Director
Gillian Hambleton.

Tours Manager
Hilary Burns.

Finance Coordinator
Karen Hirst.

Designer
Michelle Huitson.

Production Manager
Ben Steppenbeck.

InterACT Students 2011/12
InterACT.

Board of Directors.