At the core of our new change-making vision is equality, social justice and a focus on well-being.

We need leaders who can support our journey towards equity and greater mental resilience for our staff, theatre-makers, participants and audiences, and who have both the expertise and the lived experiences to inform our progress.

A Chair has oversight of a company and holds it to account on all that it does. So, we asked our NTW staff, collaborators and TEAM Panel to adorn a chair with qualities they wanted in our next Chair. Inquisitive, trustworthy, collaborative, brave, relatable and fun were some of the words they came up with.

This insight kicked off our recruitment process, with change-making firmly in mind. After two stages of interviews, many conversations and a fair few coffees, our panel came to the decision to do things differently and appoint two Co-Chairs instead of one. Enter Yvonne Connikie and Sharon Gilburd.

We’re really looking forward to you getting to know them. So, we grabbed a camera and the chair itself, and sat down for a chat. This is just the beginning of our Get to know our Co-Chairs series, so you can see for yourself how both Sharon and Yvonne match up to the qualities we were looking for.

Meet Sharon

As a current Trustee, Sharon already has a load of knowledge about NTW. She’s keen to combine this with her professional experience to interrogate our operations and strategy.

Meet Yvonne

Yvonne brings game-changing qualities in her understanding of the arts, her co-creation approach and community networks, which will challenge our strategy and our work.

Having Co-Chairs will support pace within our governance, and draw a wide range of perspectives into debate and decision-making at leadership level.

There’s lots to do. We're excited to get cracking.