Press Release: Scottish Ballet looks to the future with three new non-executive directors announced

[Jan McNulty]

SCOTTISH BALLET LOOKS TO THE FUTURE WITH THREE NEW NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ANNOUNCED

Scottish Ballet is excited to announce three new Directors to the Board: Ted Brandsen, Director of Dutch National Ballet, Giles Hedger, CEO of M&C Saatchi London, and Anna Bateson, VP Platforms and Partnerships at the Guardian Media Group.

 

These new positions have arisen due to the retirement late last year of four long-serving Directors: Caroline Roxburgh, Anu Giri, Anne Gallacher and Michael Berry. The vacancies provided Scottish Ballet with an ideal opportunity to review the mix of Directors, to ensure that its Board adequately reflects the aspiration, as well as the operational and creative functions of the Company.

 

Ted Brandsen brings a wealth of artistic knowledge and experience to the Board, and will act as an artistic mentor, advisor, and arts ambassador for Scottish Ballet throughout the ballet and wider arts world.

 

Giles Hedger fulfils an important strategic brand overview position on the Board. As the new CEO of M&C Saatchi (and formally Chief Strategy Officer at FCB Inferno), Giles is uniquely placed to advise on Scottish Ballet’s strategic objectives to elevate their brand and expand their global reach.

 

Anna Bateson will bring to the Board enormous experience in digital marketing and content creation, through roles including Senior Director, Global Consumer Marketing, YouTube at Google Inc., Director of Viewer Marketing at ITV Networks, and most recently her VP appointment at the Guardian.

 

Scottish Ballet Chair, Norman Murray:

“This is an exciting time for Scottish Ballet, as we reinvigorate the Board, implement an ambitious five year strategy, refresh our brand and launch a new visual identity in the coming weeks. Scottish Ballet continues to excite and receive acclaim on the local and world stage, most recently through its successful premiere season in New York, an imaginative ‘world-first’ digital season, and in the many educational and outreach programmes that continue to inspire and enliven our communities.”

 

[Bruce]

Interesting to see that DNB's Ted Brandsen is now on the Scottish Board. It was also recently announced that Brandsen in on the 'Creative Consortium' that steers the Sadler's Wells/BRB Ballet Now initiative to develop choreographers. Good to see ballet forming new links like this. And good for Scottish Ballet to be seen to cultivate links into Europe, given the current politics.

 

Also impressed by the appointment of Anna Bateson - beefing up their digital knowledge. Although it didn't feature here particularly Scottish Ballet recently had a digital season and are clearly looking to push the boundaries beyond "lets do lots of videos and live transmissions". That's useful stuff, but not ground breaking.