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.

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 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 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 writes regularly in the national and international media. Azieb’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, Azieb 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’s work also appears in The Times, Vogue, Grazia and many others. A regular contributor to BBC Radio, Africa Writes and Africa Gathering, Azieb’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.

Martin Harrison is the CFO  of Windracers a drone start-up based in Southampton. Martin has worked in finance for over thirty 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 in digital marketing and is currently working for Windracers which is a leader in the fast evolving world of autonomous aviation. Windracers is developing the capability to deliver essential logistics to the people and places that need them, anywhere, anytime. 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.

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.

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.