Our Board of Trustees
Stuart Fletcher
Stuart Fletcher was, until April 2016, Chief Executive Officer of Bupa, a role he held since March 2012.
Before joining Bupa, Stuart spent 26 years in leadership positions with Diageo Plc. He was President of Diageo International between 2004 – 2011, having been President of Key Markets from 2000 – 2004.
Stuart held a number of other senior general management and finance positions with Diageo including roles based in Japan, USA and Hong Kong.
Stuart is Chair of isoshealth, a Non-Executive Director of Huma Therapeutics Ltd and Radar Software and is a member of a number of Advisory Boards. He is also a Trustee of two other charities, Pancreatic Cancer UK and United World Schools.
Diane Howse
Diane Howse is an artist with wide-ranging curatorial experience who has made a significant contribution to the arts in Yorkshire.
In 1989 she founded the Harewood Contemporary and opened the Terrace Gallery at Harewood House, the first such commitment to promoting contemporary art to be established in the heritage sector. She continues an involvement in developing the programme of exhibitions and projects in the House and grounds.
In 2005 she curated and produced Appearance – a large scale pop-up exhibition in Leeds city centre. This led to her co-founding PSL [Project Space Leeds] and presenting an ongoing programme in this same space until 2012 when PSL moved to its new home The Tetley.
In 2012 she was a founder of the Geraldine Connor Foundation, a charity continuing the legacy of the inspirational ethnomusicologist and theatre creator, Geraldine Connor. The charity works to support artists and create opportunities across all art forms for those who might otherwise not have access to them. She continues in her role of Chair of the organisation.
She has been a trustee of Harewood House Trust since 1990 and is also a Patron of SI Leeds Literary Prize and President of the Yorkshire Gardens Trust amongst other roles.
Priya Khanchandani
Priya Khanchandani is a writer, curator and commentator. She is the incoming Head of Curatorial and Interpretation at the Design Museum. As an independent writer, she contributes to publications such as Frieze, The Observer and the Sunday Times. For the past two years, Priya has been the Editor of design and architecture magazine Icon, for which she is shortlisted for the 2020 Fiona Macpherson New Editor of the Year award.
Priya grew up in Luton and studied Modern Languages at Cambridge University before embarking on a postgraduate law degree and beginning her career as a solicitor at magic circle firm Clifford Chance. Her interests then led her to undertake a two-year MA in the History of Design at the Royal College of Art, in which she gained a Distinction and the annual Dissertation Prize. She started her arts career working at the Victoria and Albert Museum and then at the British Council, as Head of Arts Programmes for India.
Priya was a Trustee of Chisenhale Gallery for five years and is currently a Trustee of the national board for gallery education Engage. She is a Founding Member of the pro-diversity collective Museum Detox.
Steve Langan - Chair
Born in Scotland, Steve graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in History and Economic History. Over the course of his career, he has held senior roles in some of the world’s best known companies, including Coca-Cola and Diageo, before spending the last 16 years as a CEO and Executive Committee member at Hiscox, one of the world’s leading specialist insurers. During this time, he lived and worked in Brazil, Ireland, Italy and the USA, and ran businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.
Steve’s association with contemporary art and architecture stretches back decades. He ran the original award-winning Becks Bier contemporary art sponsorship programme in the late 1980s and early 90s, was the design lead on the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, led the design and build of the striking Hiscox office in York, and since 2017 has been the Head of the Hiscox Art Collection, which is displayed in over 40 offices worldwide. In his time at Hiscox, Steve also developed contemporary art sponsorship programmes with the National Gallery, the Serpentine, the Whitechapel as well as with The Hepworth Wakefield. Steve is a Non-Exec Director of Helsinki based insurance company Sampo, and Chair of the Kenneth Armitage Foundation, which supports sculptural tradition by awarding financial assistance to artists of all ages.
Henry Meyric Hughes
Henry Meyric Hughes is a freelance curator, editor and writer on art. He is Honorary President of AICA, in Paris, Chair of the International Awards for Art Criticism in London and Shanghai, a member of the Scientific and Cultural Advisory Council of the Archives de la critique d’art and member of the editorial board of the journal, Critique d’art, in Rennes. He is also a board member of Matt’s Gallery, London. His main subject areas are British art in the twentieth century and modern and contemporary art since 1945.
From 1968 to 1992 Henry worked on cultural exchanges for the British Council in Germany, Peru, France and Italy, and as Director, in turn, of Visiting Arts and the Visual Arts Department, in London. From 1992 to 1996 he was Director of the Hayward Gallery, London, before embarking on an independent career. He has been a frequent curator and commissioner at the Venice Biennale and São Paulo Bienal and (co-)curated numerous national and international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. He was co-founder, then founding President of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Manifesta (1993-2008). He has been Special Adviser for Council of Europe Exhibitions (2007-14) and an adviser to UNESCO.
He has been decorated by the French and German governments.
Dame Magdalene Odundo
Dame Magdalene Odundo is one of the world’s most esteemed ceramic artists and Chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts, Kent & Surrey.
Odundo was born in Nairobi, Kenya and moved to the UK in 1971 where she studied at Farnham College and the Royal College of Art, London. Odundo has spent 40 years in education as a maker, researcher, research supervisor, visiting lecturer and external examiner to various national and international universities. She has been a mentor to young aspiring artists, encouraging many, especially from Africa, to take up ceramics as a profession.
Magdalene Odundo was awarded the African Art Recognition Award by Detroit Institute of Arts in 2008; the African Heritage Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, Nairobi, Kenya in 2012; a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Ceramic Festival in 2019; and in 2020 received a DBE from the Queen for her contribution to Art and Arts Education. Odundo has Honorary Doctorates from the University of Florida, Gainesville and University of Arts London. Odundo is Patron & Trustee of the National Society for Education of Art & Design (NSEAD) UK, is a Trustee of the Watts Gallery in Surrey and is a member of the National Museums of Kenya Nairobi’s Contemporary Art Gallery project.
Magdalene Odundo’s work is represented in public and private collections around the world, including Wakefield’s art collection. In 2019 The Hepworth Wakefield presented Odundo’s first major retrospective exhibition in a UK public museum.
