News Story
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Catherine Cassidy-Dedics, Tony Lankester and Shelley Jofre to our Board of Directors!
Catherine Cassidy-Dedics is currently the Chief Executive of Welsh National Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru. She has over 28 years’ of performing arts industry experience and 16 years of executive leadership experience working internationally and across governance and policy. In her 15 years as Director of Organisational Culture & Engagement at Scottish Ballet, Catherine led the company to become specialists in dance health, with Scottish Ballet launching as an International Centre for Dance Health in 2023 and leading Healing Arts Scotland in 2024 together with the World Health Organisation and the Jameel Arts and Health Lab. Catherine has worked both nationally and internationally as a choreographer, dance artist and producer. She has been Specialist Advisor for the Arts Council of England, Creative Scotland and Imaginate Children’s Festival and was a member of the Board of Trustees for Motionhouse.
Tony Lankester is the current Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Fringe Society. Previously in his career he was the CEO of South Africa's National Arts Festival, driving a period of growth and expansion for the event and overseeing the creation of two major festival networks, becoming Treasurer of the fledgling AFRIFESTNET, which connected over 100 arts events across Africa, and Founding Chair of the World Fringe Alliance, a network of ten festivals around the world. More recently, Tony spent several years as joint CEO of Riverside Studios in London.
Shelley Jofre currently leads a team of journalists and filmmakers to deliver a broad range of investigative content, from tv documentaries to podcast series, short form video to online articles. She created BBC Scotland’s award-winning Disclosure series. Shelley has spent most of her career in investigations at the BBC, and was a reporter on Panorama for 15 years, as well as Newsnight, The Culture Show and Frontline Scotland.
Catherine, Tony and Shelley will be joining our Board alongside current Directors: Catherine Holden, John McElwee, Kate McGrath, Mukesh Moorjani, Shereen Nanjiani, Gerald Richards, Kirin Saeed, Stephen Sweeney, Kully Thiarai, alongside NTS Executive Director and co-Chief Executive Liam Sinclair, NTS Artistic Director and co-Chief Executive Jackie Wylie, and chair Jane Spiers. In addition, Eileen Blackburn (co-opted member of the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee).
We want to pass on heartfelt NTS thanks to departing Board members Jean Cameron, Keiran O'Neill, Sheelagh Duffield, and Claire Evans for their commitment to the Company and their expertise that they gave to us so generously over the last eight years.
