Our Trustees

Sarah is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. After training with a City accountancy firm, she spent 10 years working for FTSE 100 companies – initially as a tax adviser and later in financial reporting roles.

Having sung with the Bach Choir for 30 years, Sarah has a keen interest in the performing arts, particularly choral music. Through her involvement with the choir, she became aware of initiatives to make music more accessible for deaf people.

Sally is a chartered accountant and worked as a Finance Director in three London housing associations, for over 20 years. She worked in a wide range of housing provision including street homelessness, general needs, supported housing and shared ownership. In 2009 Sally joined Shape Arts as Finance and Corporate Services Director where she gained an excellent understanding of arts and access barriers. She now works part time for Shape Arts on a freelance basis.

Sally is hard of hearing and is very interested in the development of access resources, including captioning that makes the arts inclusive and accessible to deaf audiences.

As founder of the Hearing & Music PROM-T⁵® Foundation Course, a music rehabilitation training programme for professionals supporting people with hearing loss, Lena’s work focuses on improving access to music and the arts. After losing her hearing in childhood, she retrained as a hearing therapist and in 2009 became the first hearing care professional in the UK to introduce structured music rehabilitation into a mainstream NHS audiology service. She is passionate about the role of the arts in supporting health, wellbeing and social connection, and believe no one should be excluded from these experiences due to hearing loss or deafness.

Astrid brings six years of governance experience as Trustee and Vice Chair of the Publishers Training Centre. A trained classical musician with an MBA from the Open University, her career has spanned senior leadership roles at Cambridge University Press and FutureLearn, and she has consulted for the World Bank on education systems transformation. She is currently VP of Content at Save My Exams, leading content strategy and delivery across a team of 30+. As a hard-of-hearing person who depends on assistive technology daily, Astrid has a personal stake in Stagetext’s mission, and is particularly interested in how emerging AI and technology can extend its reach and sustainability.

Marie-Clare is a Head of Talent and ED&I advocate, who helps companies secure and retain skilled employees, fostering an inclusive organisational culture and sense of belonging, and ultimately driving revenue growth.

Born in London of Maltese and Irish parents, she was educated in Italy, and returned to England to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.

For over 5 years, she has served on the committee of Tech for Disability, an initiative championing accessible technology for disabled individuals, sparking her passion for enhancing accessibility within the arts for the deaf community.

Ben Glover is a freelance, deaf, video designer and creative captioner who uses interdisciplinary skills in both creative and technical fields. He produces innovative and often expressive creations typically informed by his background in theatre, film and computing.

He is a recent Fellow of the Royal Shakespeare Company for his research on creative captioning and his work has featured on international stages including the West End, the Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury Festival and Burning Man Festival.

Ben is passionate about creative access and is excited to explore how new technologies can develop this area of work.

Ben Park is an independent consultant and coach who helps cultural organisations and technology companies grow their audiences, sharpen their communications, and make better use of technology. With over 20 years’ experience spanning the Edinburgh Fringe, arts centres, theatres and Spektrix, one of the UK’s leading arts CRM and ticketing platforms, he brings an unusually well-rounded perspective to the challenges facing the cultural sector. He has worked with hundreds of organisations across the UK, Ireland and North America. Alongside his consultancy work, Ben coaches professionals to deliver compelling presentations and pitches, helping them communicate with greater clarity and confidence.

Warren is a deaf lawyer and consultant with expertise spanning global law firms, professional services, and the not-for-profit sector. After a career as a corporate finance lawyer, he moved into senior inclusion and culture development leadership roles, translating equity ambitions into measurable impact through stakeholder engagement, data analysis, and executive coaching. Warren has significant governance experience as a trustee and director focused on accessibility, disability rights, and LGBTQ+ inclusion, with long-standing pro bono legal work supporting marginalised communities. He is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Employment Lawyers Association.