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BOARD MEMBERS


The Board of South West Screen is the main executive decision making body, guiding and approving the strategy and the direction of the agency. Board meetings are held quarterly.


Roger Laughton (Chair)

Roger Laughton CBE is currently Chair of South West Screen and a Governor of the British Film Institute. He is also on the boards of the Arts Institute of Bournemouth, the Grierson Trust and Metfilm. He began his production career in the BBC where he worked in Bristol, Pebble Mill and Manchester before moving to London as Head of Network Features in 1980. He was responsible for a range of award-winning programmes including Live Aid and River Journeys. In 1986, he oversaw the launch of BBC TV's new daytime service, including Neighbours. After a spell in charge of the BBC's co-productions, he became the first CEO of Meridian, an ITV franchise winner in 1991. Later, following mergers, he led United Broadcasting and Entertainment for three years. From 1999 to 2004, he was the Head of Bournemouth Media School and also chaired a DCMS/Skillset enquiry into the training needs of the audio-visual industries. Amongst other honours, he is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and was awarded the Society's Gold Medal in 1999.


Jonathan Jackson

Jonathan is a Chartered Management Accountant with over 12 years experience in media and entertainment, working in film and television, radio, records and music publishing. He is currently Chief Operating Officer at Digital Rights Group, the UK's largest independent TV distributor. Jonathan spent over 4 years at Ingenious Media an Investment and Advisory house specialising in the media and entertainment industry in consulting and ventures roles, working very closely with a number of investee companies in Ingenious' first fund - namely Cream, 19 Entertainment, ID distribution and Stage 3 providing financial,operating and strategic support pre and post investment. He has also had senior financial roles at BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, ZTT Records and Chorion. Jonathan has a BA (Hons) degree in Accounting and an MBA from Bath School of Management.


Peter Ellis

Peter has worked as an actor with the Old Vic Company, the RSC and on television and film. He spent 16 years playing Inspector Brownlow on The Bill as well as being a semi regular in Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Les Dawson shows and Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques. Peter started out in the industry as an assistant film editor and then went on to direct drama and documentaries. He has taught film at the London Film School, and in China and Australia. Peter has also undertaken a number of community film projects in London, Leeds, Sheffield, Brighton and Derbyshire. His main interest has been to try to encourage young people to get involved in film making and to give them a voice. He is also a board member of Four Corners Film Workshop in the East End and Phoenix Arts in Exeter.


Helen Brunsdon

Helen has worked in animation for 12 years and has a wealth of experience in the industry. After obtaining a degree in animation from Farnham she worked as a production co-ordinator for the BBC series 10x10. In 1994, she worked on the Cardiff International Animation Festival and then moved to Aardman as a production assistant. As a freelance producer, Helen set up One Eye productions to produce two World Faith animated episodes for S4C, and then worked in London for various studios. In 1999 she re-joined Aardman as Development Manager, as part of the team to develop Aardman's slate for broadcast.


Annika Small

Annika is the Director of Education and New Media at Tony Blair's newly established Foundation. Prior to this, she spent seven years as the Chief Executive of award-winning Futurelab, an R&D lab exploring radically new approaches to learning with new media. Working internationally with partners as wide-ranging as Electronic Arts, Soda, Hewlett-Packard, BBC, HIT Entertainment, Microsoft and Atticmedia, Futurelab designs compelling interactive resources that support both formal and informal learning. Annika is passionate about combining the rich creative talent that exists in the UK with educational expertise and the power of digital technology to transform learning in the 21st century. Prior to Futurelab, Annika worked at The Discovery Channel and the BBC. Annika is a member of BAFTA, a Fellow of the RSA, a governor of Ashton Gate School, Bristol and a member of the Handheld Learning advisory group.


Terry Corby

Terry Corby is Chairman of Cornwall Film and the Cornwall Media group. He is also the Global Head of Marketing for Strategy & Thought Leadership at Accenture, the worlds largest Management Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing company. Before joining Accenture, Terry held a senior management and marketing roles at American Express and at Sainsbury's where he was Head of Communications and Events. Terry was a founding director of The Talent Foundation (a not-for-profit organisation) and is an Advisory Board Director of Critical Eye (Europe's Centre for Business Leadership). Before taking on senior management positions in business, Terry spent many years in media production as a producer of corporate television programmes, TV commercials, theatre productions and large-scale business events.


Dan Wright

Dan is a partner at leading Bristol law firm Osborne Clarke. He manages their large South-West corporate team. He has extensive experience advising UK and International companies on a variety of transactions including fundraisings and acquisitions / disposals. He has worked with a number of creative businesses on their corporate activity and provides seminars for educational establishments including the University of Bristol. Dan also works with a number of not for profit and charity clients advising on commercial matters.


Rebecca O'Brien

Rebecca has been an independent film producer for twenty years. She has produced ten feature films with Ken Loach, including Land and Freedom, Sweet Sixteen and My Name is Joe. In 2006 The Wind that Shakes the Barley, set during the Irish War of Independence, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes. Their latest film Looking for Eric, written by regular collaborator Paul Laverty, has just finished shooting and will be launched in 2009. O'Brien and Loach have a production company called Sixteen Films Ltd and have recently released a DVD boxed set of sixteen of Ken's Films. Rebecca is also a board member of the UK Film Council.


Dan'l Hewitt

As Director of Digital Content at Bebo, Dan'l Hewitt works closely with global media broadcasters, producers and rights owners to help them reach an audience increasingly hard to find. By developing groundbreaking partnerships between one of the worlds largest social networks and many well known traditional media companies, Dan'l is helping shape the future of media broadcast and consumption.
With close to 10 years in the digital space, including time in digital agencies and Yahoo!, Dan'l has evaluated mutually beneficial partnerships from an exposure, engagement and revenue perspective. Dan'ls role at Bebo looks to forward thinking partnerships that will dramatically transform the way in which people perceive and consume content online. From social networking, online content sharing and discovery and content syndication, Bebo is looking at the creation of entirely new business and advertising models to support existing and new talent.


Brian Leonard

Until recently a Director at the Department of Culture Media and Sport, with responsibility for creative industry policy, Brian is now working on projects for creative and social business development. As a civil servant, Brian worked for several government departments and as a regional director, first in the North East and then in the South West. In the late 90's he was Director for Environmental Protection in what is now DEFRA. Brian is also the Chair of the Tourism Working Group of Business in Sport and Leisure. He awarded a CBE in the 2008 New Year Honours.


Charles Wace

Charles founded Twofour in l988 spearheading its growth to become the UK's largest regional independent and number one interactive agency. As Chief Executive, he is responsible for the overall growth and creative vision of the Twofour Group, chairing the boards of its five companies - Broadcast, Communications, Digital, HMC Interactive and Digital Bridge. Charles started his career in newspapers before moving to BBC Radio and Television where he worked as a reporter and producer. He is executive producer of several of Twofour's major long-running series and has a special interest in convergent television projects.
Charles was elected as council chair of the UK independent trade body Pact (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television), taking up the appointment in January 2008. A long standing member of Pact he had chaired its Nations and Regions policy group for the previous two years. Charles was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award for Technology & Communication South Region 2007.


Chris Wensley

Chris has extensive experience as a teacher and senior manager in higher education, and was until recently Director of the HEFCE-funded Centre for Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University. He is currently a freelance educational media consultant, working principally as a lead evaluator for Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for Creative Media, as it establishes its network of Screen and Media Academies to develop new talent in film and media. His research interests include the adaptation of novels for the screen, and he regularly presents at national and international conferences.