Advisory Board
Our Creative Industries Advisory Board brings together leading voices from industry and academia to support the College of Arts and Law in achieving its strategic ambitions in relation to the creative industries. The Board advises on priorities for investment, facilities, and emerging technologies, contributes expert insight to curriculum design, new programme development, and research initiatives - ensuring we remain globally relevant, innovative, and connected to current and future industry practice.
Gianna Bouchard
Professor of Contemporary Performance, Co-chair
As Deputy Head of School, the Board offers me opportunities to share our strategic planning for the creative industries, across education, research and enterprise activities, and receive feedback from the group. The composition of the Board, with professionals from across the sector, provides me with really useful industry insights and engagement that we can take back to our teams to enhance and extend what we are doing. We have had very productive conversations around student placements in the creative industries, around kit and facilities, and around graduate attributes, for example.
Adam Driscoll
CEO of ATC Group, Co-chair
Adam has a wealth of experience running and managing music and entertainment related businesses, both public and private. He acquired his first business in 1994, floating it as A4 Holdings Plc on OFEX in 1996. He founded and floated channelfly.com plc on AIM in 1999. Following a management buy-out in 2003 the company returned to AIM in 2005 as MAMA Group with Adam as Co-CEO. The company grew to become a leading UK music business, owning over 20 music venues, a number of festivals and a large artist management business. The company was sold to HMV Group in 2010 for £46m. Adam is CEO of ATC Music Group Plc. ATC is a multi-disciplinary music company which encompasses artist management, live agency, merchandising and technology services, live events and rights. The Group works with over 1000 artists including globally recognised performers such as Radiohead, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Bring Me The Horizon, Jonnny Marr, Fontaines DC, Madness, Faithless and The Lumineers. ATC Music Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Mark Bell
Arts Commissioning Editor, BBC
University of Birmingham Alumnus Mark Bell studied Philosophy at the College of Arts and Law from 1982 to 1985. Now working for the BBC, Mark plays an integral role as a Commissioning Editor for the Arts in the BBC’s Television Department. In his role, Mark Is constantly getting pitched ideas for TV shows and he’s responsible for determining which ones will and won’t be a success.
Jo Bucknall
Associate Professor
Jo is an interdisciplinary scholar, immersive experience and transformation architect and social impact entrepreneur who works across the creative cultural industries and academia. As a founder of the Immersive Experience Network she has been instrumental in establishing Live/location-based immersive as a discreet cultural sector. Through arts and humanities data-driven research methodologies, she has been working to build a credible and robust creative collaborative community through events, industry research, knowledge exchange, networking, capacity and resource building.
Zoe Bulaitis
Associate Professor
Dr Zoe Bulaitis is a literary scholar and critical theorist with a background in cultural and higher education policy. Her research focuses on the articulation of cultural value in contemporary higher education and the creative sector, in particular; the economisation of cultural value; policy analysis and critique; histories of liberal and neoliberal education; humanities-oriented methodologies; and the public value of arts and humanities research.
Ameesha Green
Founder and CEO of The Book Shelf
Ameesha Green is the Founder and CEO of The Book Shelf (est. 2018). Since graduating from UoB in English Literature and Philosophy, she has worked on around 700 nonfiction books, helped 30 students gain their first steps in the publishing industry through mentoring and internships, and gathered almost 2.5 million answer views on Quora talking about publishing. She is the top-ranked Philosophy book coach in the world, a judge for the UK’s Business Book Awards, the author of a children’s book on resilience, and host of bookish podcast “Better Shelves ”.
Annie Mahtani
Professor of Electroacoustic Composition and Practice
Annie is an electroacoustic composer, sound artist, and performer whose work explores environmental sound and spatial audio. She is Professor of Electroacoustic Composition and Practice at the University of Birmingham and co-director of BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre).
Gareth Neame
Executive Chairman of Carnival Films
Gareth Neame OBE, DL is a BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe winning TV and film producer and executive. He was Head of Independent Drama at the BBC from 2000 – 2004 before becoming CEO of Carnival Films, where he has been responsible for many popular shows, most notably the global TV phenomenon Downton Abbey, winner of three Golden Globes and fifteen Primetime Emmys. Recent productions include The Day of the Jackal, All Her Fault, and The Gilded Age. An alumnus of University of Birmingham, Gareth was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2023.
John Sewell
Founder and CEO of Cosimo Art
John Sewell is the founder of Cosimo, a platform dedicated to giving independent and emerging visual artists the technology, tools, and support to succeed - through professional portfolios, industry expertise, and accessible digital resources. He studied History of Art at the University of Birmingham, completing both his BA and MA between 2015 and 2019, and was one of the first recipients of the University’s Start-Up Scholarship. He has been recognised by Innovate UK, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, and the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Entrepreneurs. His work focuses on bridging the gap between artistic practice and professional opportunity in the creative industries.
James Walters
Professor of Screen Aesthetics and Criticism
I research and teach film and television aesthetics. My work involves close reading and, particularly, I am interested in the relationship between this critical practice and questions of value and achievement.
Hannah Witton
Creator and author
Hannah Witton is an award-winning online creator and author. She started making YouTube videos in 2011 and spent over a decade making sex and relationships education content including podcasts and writing books. Now as well as her own vlogs and lifestyle videos, she supports other ambitious and overwhelmed content creators in feeling fulfilled in their careers without burning out through consulting and mentoring.