The Board

Mark Byford

Play to the Crowd Chair of the Board

Mark Byford is a former award winning journalist and editor, and now a published author.

In a career spanning more than 30 years with the BBC, he was Deputy Director General and Head of BBC Journalism from 2004-2011. Previously, he was Director of the BBC World Service.

He has lived in Winchester for more than three decades; is a Lay Canon and member of Chapter at Winchester Cathedral; a Governor of University of Winchester; a Trustee of the Winchester Hospice fundraising charity; and a Trustee of the RNLI.

Anthony Arkwright

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Anthony’s background is in property working for national firms, south coast independents as well as having run his own companies.

An active member of Winchester Rotary, he has much experience of service in the community and fundraising.

Lorraine Cheshire

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Following a lengthy and most enjoyable career teaching Drama, Theatre and Performing Arts, in a number of schools across Hampshire, Lorraine currently works for  Artswork, an arts charity, and the Arts Council Bridge Organisation across the South East, as an Education Development Manager.  She has also worked as a freelance director and trainer for teachers.

Lorraine passionately believes that everybody should have access to the transformational power of arts and culture to connect to the creative potential innate in all of us.

Steven Cross

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Steven Cross worked in Winchester for 22 years up until 2017 with the last 16 years of this period as the Finance Director of Denplan.

During this time Steven grew to love the theatre so it seems completely natural for him to continue his support of this lovely old building and the wonderful performances as a Trustee.

Since joining the Board he has got to know the incredibly enthusiastic and hardworking staff and discovered the charity is much more than the theatre performances.

Majid Dhana

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Majid Dhana is a Poet/Visual Artist originally from Zimbabwe, who contemplates personal and universal themes focusing on the human-nature and human-human interactions and wellbeing. The aim of which is to inspire a positive personal and social change within his surrounding community.

Majid has found that Poetry can help people to express when recounting hardship and can help to bring their stories alive. The digital medium provides a safe and less intimidating space to encourage this first-time expression for many people. Creating a safe space and accessible platform for people to voice their hardship and resilience, is highly important to allow self-empowerment, meaning, belonging, achievement and integration into the local community.

Amy Eastwood

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Amy is a Creative Producer with particular expertise in Outdoor Arts, outreach and participation. She has worked in Australia, the UK and is a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow, where she researched how Outdoor Arts can engage young people in Europe and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Amy is currently Cultural Programming Manager for the National Trust, working across the country to address inequality of access to arts, culture and heritage, leading the trust's creative, cultural and public engagement programming. She previously held positions at the British Library and Museum of London as well as national theatre and dance producing companies in Sydney, Australia.

She moved to Winchester from Sydney, Australia, in 2018 and is excited to be part of supporting the cultural fabric of the city.

Lynne Lockyer

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Lynne Lockyer has lived near Winchester for over 40 years and has been involved in the local theatre scene all this time.

She has a professional background in Organisational Development, HR and Strategic Management as a Practitioner, Academic and Consultant. In addition she has been a Non-Executive Director and Trustee, locally and nationally, of a number of organisations including Brendoncare, Hampshire Strategic Partnership, the NHS Confederation, Eastleigh and Test Valley South PCT and University Hospitals Southampton. 

She was Vice Chair and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Nuffield Theatre Trust for 7 years.

Sho Shibata

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Sho is the Executive Producer of Stopgap Dance Company, an acclaimed inclusive dance company creating and touring contemporary dance works in the UK and abroad.

He has produced a wide range of indoor, outdoor and digital dance productions and supported the company to establish a pathway to profession for D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people.

He is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion. He is also a trustee of the dance examination board ISTD and a member of Area Council for Arts Council England in the South East.

Shaun Stacey

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Shaun has 25 years experience within senior HR and operational roles. He has worked for Serco since 2011 and is currently HR Director for Citizen Services.

He also has significant experience as a trustee, most recently as Chair of Remap a national disability charity. He is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Chartered Management Institute.

Shaun lives in Winchester with his wife and two daughters. His interests include reading, sport and technology.

Dr Paul Spencer

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Paul is CEO of Winchester Business Improvement District and prior to this he worked in an economic development role with a particular focus on cultural and creative industries. He is passionate about the arts, business, cities, creativity, economy, place making and place management.

Iain Steel

Chair of Winchester Theatre Trust

Iain's family has served the community for over 150 years. A regular attendee & sometime performer, he is the third generation of the Steels to continue supporting the theatre.

Noemi Wall

Play to the Crowd Board Member

Noemi is an insurance professional with over 25 years' experience in Non-Life insurance within the Lloyd's of London market. After 15 years working as an underwriter for various Lloyd's Syndicates Noemi set up her own consultancy in 2012 providing expert advice to numerous managing agents specialised in trade credit, political risks, and political violence insurance.

Noemi has worked extensively with financial institutions and trade finance professionals in Europe and internationally.

In 2018 Noemi obtained an MSc in Risk and Finance from the University of
Southampton and is currently a member of the Institute of Risk Management.

Through her work and her studies Noemi has developed a keen interest in risk management and wants to deploy her knowledge to enable the success of organisations through careful identification, understanding, management and mitigation of risks. She is passionate about Sustainability and the need to develop novel business models that incorporate ambitious but credible environmental goals to corporate strategic objectives.

In February 2021 Noemi joined the board of Beazley Furlonge Limited, UK subsidiary of Beazley plc, a FTSE 100 company, as Non-Executive Director.

More recently she was named Senior Independent Director and is a member of the Risk Committee and the Audit Committee.

Noemi was appointed to the Board of Trustees in May 2024.