Our Team

Alan is a technology entrepreneur working in the communications and media sector. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, working in Deloitte’s music and entertainments group, he co-founded a technology consulting company which he then ran for nearly 15 years. The company won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for the innovative work it did with telecommunications businesses in the UK and Europe. Now working freelance, he continues to provide strategic advice to help technology businesses achieve their goals, and occasionally writes iPad apps in his spare time. Alan loves technology, science and maths, and sees no contradiction with loving theatre and music too.

Charlotte Swain is a career fundraiser with experience crossing sectors, missions and continents. With a particular focus on engendering opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds, she aims to leave the door open behind her wherever she goes.  An exceptional relationship and project manager with a background in environmental conservation, the performing arts and human rights, Charlotte has a diversity of experience. From working to support people seeking abortions in Texas to providing access to the performing arts in London, she is particularly driven to create opportunities for people to access places and spaces in which they have not historically felt accessible to them.

Charlotte currently works with international LGBTQ+ rights organisation, Stonewall UK, as their Associate Director, Philanthropy and Partnerships. She manages a variety of major corporate partnerships and philanthropic relationships all with a view to increasing diversity and inclusion for LGBTQ+ people across the UK and beyond to be free to be themselves in all areas of life.

Enni-Kukka is a London-based, Finland-born Empathy Artist and Designer. By creating for empathy as the end goal and not only with empathy as a part of the process of creation, Enni-Kukka has launched the Akin Kollektiv, a series of installations, experiences, games and tools to increase connection and collaboration beyond borders, between people of different cultures, backgrounds, generations, races and values. Her work breaks taboos and challenges social, cultural and behavioural norms in order to transform empathy from an individual feeling to a collective power.

Enni-Kukka has a joint M.A. and M.Sc. in “Global Innovation Design” from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. A former Classical Archaeologist from Oxford University, she has previously worked as a Cannes Lion- and IPA Effectiveness Award-winning Brand Strategist in advertising for Saatchi & Saatchi and adam&eveDDB in London.

Born and raised in Lebanon, Geoliane was selected by Sciences Po Paris for WOMED 2015 (Women of the Mediterranean: Future generation of leaders). She studied law alongside theatre and performing arts at the Lebanese University and was trained in contemporary dance. Between 2006 and 2012, she worked as a performer, choreographer, exterior eye and assistant director with Lebanese and international artists. While gradually shifting to cultural management and international development, she collaborated with several international organisations on mapping the cultural scene in the Arab region and identifying valuable actors and projects. She has been jury member, moderator and speaker at different international forums. She co-directed Spring Festival 2016 (LB) and organised the IETM Satellite meeting in Beirut on freedom of expression among others. Geoliane was International Cooperation manager at Moussem (BE), strategy and development manager at Beirut & Beyond International Music Festival (LB) until 2017, and managing director at Hammana Artist House (LB) until 2018. She has regularly curated and produced professional programs of international platforms (Us, the moon & the Neighbours Festival 2015 (LB), Exodos Festival 2017 (SI), Shubbak Festival 2017 (UK)). Between 2017 and 2022, Geoliane was a member of the board of directors of IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts), in Brussels. She is currently International Advisor at ONDA (Office National de Diffusion Artistique), in Paris, and member of the board of directors of LIFT Festival, in London.

Georgie Black is a barrister, theatre impresario and arts philanthropist. She is Patron and Founder of House of Oz, an award-winning platform for showcasing Australian Creative Arts for export, Chair of Du Boisson Dance Foundation, Patron of the UK / Australia Season of Culture, on the London Advisory Board for the Australian Ballet Company’s UK Tour and Honorary Director of the Royal Opera House.

Eritrean-born Azieb-Hannah Pool is currently the Artistic Director of Bernie Grant Arts Centre, a multi-arts centre in Tottenham. The Centre hosts a busy calendar of theatre, dance, live music, comedy, cinema, and exhibitions in collaboration with local artists, as well as some of London’s biggest names. Before joining Bernie Grant, Azieb-Hannah was the Senior Programmer of Contemporary Culture at the Southbank Centre, the lead programmer for the Africa Utopia festival and one of the curators of the Women of the World (WOW) festival. Also a journalist, author and broadcaster, Azieb-Hannah writes regularly in the national and international media. Azieb-Hannah’s second book, Fashion Cities Africa, (Intellect Books 2016) celebrates the fashion landscapes of four key cities – Lagos, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Casablanca and is inspired by the exhibition of the same name, which she co-curated at the Brighton Museum. A Guardian journalist for over 14 years, Hannah was Guardian Weekend Magazine’s first Beauty Editor, and wrote the New Black – the first beauty column for women of colour in a national newspaper. Former Associate Editor of Arise magazine, and former Chair of UKFeminista, Azieb-Hannah’s work also appears in The Times, Vogue, Grazia and many others. A regular contributor to BBC Radio, Africa Writes and Africa Gathering, Azieb-Hannah’s first book, My Fathers’ Daughter (Penguin 2006) was described by the Washington Post as “a significant and moving book.”

Helen Shute is currently Chief Executive at Rambert, the contemporary dance company who commission and tour across the UK and beyond.  Most recently she has worked in the commercial sector as Chief Operating Officer of the newly formed House Productions, working with Tessa Ross CBE and Juliette Howell to establish the company as a new home for world-class talent across television and film. Helen started her career in festivals at Fronteras Latin American Festival and Woking Dance Festival.  She subsequently joined The Place as Programming Associate where she worked with many emerging choreographers, including Hofesh Shechter, producing his early works Uprising (2006) and In your rooms (2007). Together with Shechter, Helen founded Hofesh Shechter Company in 2008, and under her leadership as the Executive Producer the Company grew to become a major national and international presence establishing significant partnerships with high profile venues in the UK and in major world cities. Helen’s experience in fundraising has seen her raising funds through a huge range of sources, her particular expertise lie in the cultivation of individuals who support a vision and the establishment of international co-production relationships for large-scale work. Helen had the pleasure of working with the Executive Team of LIFT in early 2016 and now serves on the board.  She also currently sits on the boards of New Movement Collective and Aerowaves European Dance Network.

Jessica Parker thrives on paving the way for change and empowering others. She brings a range of perspectives, both as a practitioner and through her strategic policy work across the creative industries. A professional dance artist, teacher and mentor for 12 years, Jessica has worked at a national and international level, with a particular focus on supporting young people including individuals with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Currently working for the Mayor of London’s Culture and Creative Industries Unit she has launched a series of strategic programmes to increase diversity and support health & well-being across the creative workforce in the capital. A skilled event manager she has led high-profile events across the public and private sectors, from film premieres to conferences, high level industry events to product launches. Jessica continues to foster collaborative relationships with artists, cultural and education institutions and the private sector with the goal of enriching the lives of people and solidifying London’s reputation as a global hub for creativity and innovation.

malakaï is an artist, educator and producer from pre-gentrified Hackney, London.They work actively as a poet, theatre director, dramaturg, cultural programmer, creative producer, facilitator and consultant. Led by curiosity and care, malakaï creates and interrogates through an unapologetically Afroqueer lens.

malakaï co-founded and was Artistic Director of The S+K Project, a producing theatre company specialising in nurturing the talent of emerging Black & Asian artists, between 2014-19. Aged 21, malakaï was appointed Associate Director at Theatre Peckham, responsible for the venue’s artistic programming, talent development and overseeing participatory community projects.

Most recently, malakaï has led projects with the Royal Court, Apples & Snakes, South London Gallery, UAL, Mountview and Guildhall. Parallel to their work in the arts, malakaï devises and delivers bespoke anti-racist training and consultancy, predominantly for clients in the cultural and charity sectors – which have included the Albany, Young Vic and Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

A Barbican Young Poets alumnus, malakaï is currently co-director of literary arts organisation BORN::FREE, and remains passionate about expanding the forms and reach of experimental Afro-diasporic writing. They are undertaking an MA in Black British Literature at Goldsmiths University of London.

Martin Harrison is the Group Financial Controller of Inmarsat, the global mobile satellite business based in Old Street, London. Martin has worked in finance for over twenty-five years originally training as a Chartered Accountant with PwC. He spent fifteen years with the erstwhile “bellwether” of British Industry ICI in a wide variety of roles based in the UK and Canada including a spell as Finance Director of Dulux. More recently Martin has worked in the telecoms sector and is currently working for Inmarsat who were set up in the 1970’s by the International Maritime Organisation to provide communications to the global maritime community.  They now provide communications over a network of twelve satellites to a wide variety of businesses and organisations including governments who have a need to communicate in remote regions or where there is no reliable terrestrial network.  As well as enjoying the theatre over many years Martin is to be seen most days dressed in lycra trying to prove something – what he ‘s not sure – on his beloved bike.

Richard has been an ad man for over twenty years. Though he shows a rare penchant for monogamy when it comes to employers, he has worked at some of the most famous and iconic ad agencies including Abbott Mead Vickers and the bad boy of British advertising, HHCL. For the past five years Richard has been the Strategy Director of Saatchi & Saatchi working across their client base and helping restore the agency’s creative birthright most particularly with work for T-Mobile (the flash mobs in Liverpool Street Station and Heathrow) and the launch of EE using Kevin six-degrees-of-separation Bacon. Not to mention LIFT. Richard also writes one of the UK’s most influential advertising blogs at www.adliterate.com and is a regular cask strength columnist on brand and advertising matters.

Robin Saphra worked for 10 years as an accomplished Theatre Director before becoming a lawyer. A former trustee of the Yard Theatre in London, he has always had a strong interest in the arts. Since starting his legal career at a City law firm, Robin has spent 20 years in Corporate General Counsel roles to global technology businesses in the UK, Germany, Dubai and the USA. He has been a key influencer in creating and developing regulation for the global telecommunications markets. Robin is also an entrepreneur and has helped establish several new ventures within technology and professional services. As well as being a LIFT Board Member, Robin is Chair of the Board at Stagetext.

Rosie Millard OBE is Chair of BBC Children in Need, Chair of Firstsite arts centre in Colchester and Deputy Chair of Opera North. She is a journalist and broadcaster and has been reporting on and writing in the national press on the arts, popular culture, lifestyle and politics for over 30 years. Rosie was BBC Arts Correspondent 1995-2004, Arts Editor, New Statesman 2004-2007, and has also been a theatre critic, columnist, feature writer, travel writer and profile writer, writing for most of the national broadsheets. She is a familiar voice on radio and familiar face on TV with regular appearances on Radio 4, Radio 2, Five Live, Newsnight and Sky News. For four years she led Hull 2017 City of Culture as Chair of the Board. This was a £35 million national event which achieved unprecedented acclaim and international repute for the city of Hull, and for which she was appointed OBE. She has written four books, one of which, The Tastemakers: British Art Now, is recommended reading for arts students at London University of the Arts.

After a stint as a Daily Mirror columnist and LIVE TV! Presenter Simon joined BBC Entertainment before moving to So Television in 1998 to work on C4’s So Graham Norton. In 2003 he joined TalkbackTHAMES where he co-developed and produced the comedy game show ‘Distraction’ and oversaw a raft of projects including QI, They Think It’s All Over and Channel 4’s The Morning After Show before returning to the BBC in 2008 and became Creative Head of BBC Comedy in 2011. In Jan 2013 he joined the digital content and tech company Rockabox (now Scoota) as a Freelance Content Producer, working across a range of projects including Whisked Away – an original YouTube programme he created specifically for TUI and the First Choice brand. In 2014 he co-founded and launched KidRated – an online platform for families whilst continuing to freelance in television, producing content for the major networks and online.