Board of Trustees

David Watson
Chair

David is currently the Executive Director of Audiences and Media at National Museums Liverpool.

He is also founder and creative director of The Great British Gala, creative director of MikMen and a trustee of One Dance UK, the national body for dance.

His previous roles include Director of Brand and Advocacy for Birmingham Royal Ballet and Head of Digital / Digital Editor in Chief for Hull City of Culture 2017.

Ngunan Adamu
Trustee

Ngunan Adamu is a trained journalist, multi-media trainer and entrepreneur, working for varying departments within the BBC with a focus on outreach, youth and music. Ngunan has been at the BBC for fifteen years working locally, nationally and internationally, with a passion for working with women and young people, using media – especially radio to empower and educate the masses.

She is currently the producer and presenter of Upfront which is a Black Magazine show at BBC Radio Merseyside focusing on news, current affairs, stories and music that is of interest to the Merseyside Black community. She’s also an international multimedia trainer for the BBC World Service, travelling the globe to train foreign journalists and editors for the BBC World Service. Ngunan is also the founder of iWoman Academy CIC – a radio academy for women.

Erik Boekesteijn
Trustee

Erik is a Library Avenger and one of Europe’s most respected librarians; he was responsible for much of the design for Storyhouse’s library. He lives in the Netherlands where he is Senior Advisor at the National Library at the Netherlands (KB). He is the Consultant Public Libraries 2020 and founding father of Public Libraries 2030. Facilitator and consultant for IFLA. Owner of Shanachie Media and producer of This Week in Libraries and ShanachieTours, a worldwide tour of searching for best practice in libraries.

Presenter, motivator, musician and author. Erik was LJ’s Mover and Shaker of the Library World 2009; and literally and officially the Best Librarian in the Netherlands 2015!

Bense Burnett
Trustee

Bense’s career spans senior leadership roles across numerous countries within a global healthcare business. He brings expertise in Business Strategy, Project Management, Change Management and Governance having delivered complex, cost-effective services and major organisational change programmes internationally.

Throughout his career, he has been passionate about applying his expertise to deliver a ‘best in class’ consumer experience. His knowledge and advice have been used by the UK Government’s Business, Skills & Innovation Department to assess Shared Services capabilities for its Research Councils in order to drive a major strategy delivery plan. His long-held interest in the arts, together with his recent retirement means that he now has the opportunity to apply his commercial experience to supporting Storyhouse moving forward.

Michaela Dalton
Trustee

Michaela was born and raised in Chester, and although now living just over the Welsh border, still considers Chester home. She feels passionate about putting back into a community that she has drawn so much from over the years. Currently working as part of the Cheshire West and Chester local authority-commissioned Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service within Children’s Social Care, allows her to combine her personal and professional experiences to support the some of the most vulnerable, disadvantaged or under represented young people in our community.

Coming from a Neuro-diverse family, coupled with raising a child with a complex physical disability has led to a 1st class honours degree in Education Studies and Inclusion at Liverpool John Moores University, followed by a Masters Education in Society at the University of Chester, and an ongoing PCET at Wrexham Glyndwr University. Michaela has a background in alternative educational provision, working primarily with what are often described as ‘hard to reach’ young people. Inclusion is at the heart of everything she does and she is an advocate for fair access to education for all.

Andy Fergus
Trustee

Andy Fergus is the Commercial Director of Hope House and Ty Gobaith Children’s Hospices, responsible for the charity’s finance, retail, estates, digital and governance functions. He graduated with a Management Science degree from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology before joining MBNA in the US and then in Chester.

His work in financial services was followed by time as an entrepreneur in the retail and hospitality sectors and as a consultant. He has been with Hope House since 2013. Andy holds a Master’s degree in Charity Leadership and Management from the University of Chester and co-founded the Dragonsong youth choir in Wrexham.

John Grout
Trustee

John qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young before working in the UK and internationally with commercial, banking and charitable organisations. He retired as Finance Director of CAF Bank in 2020 and now works part-time as Treasurer of Charities Aid Foundation.

Jack Howard
Young Trustee

Jane Hyndman
Trustee

Jane is an experienced media and copyright lawyer. Jane has worked for and advised many media companies, predominately in the audio-visual sector and is an experienced board director currently sitting on the boards of AGICOA in Switzerland and The Educational Recording Agency in the UK.

Amy Jones
Trustee

Amy came to the board via Storyhouse’s Young Trustee programme and she chairs our Youth Forum. She is 24 and from North Wales and has a BA Hons in Broadcast Journalism and Media Communications.  She has also been on our Young Leaders Programme.

Amy spends her time helping out in the Wardrobe Department and has worked backstage on many Storyhouse Originals Productions – Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Blue Stockings, The Suicide and Miss Julie. She has also worked at Lush Cosmetics in Chester.

Sioned Jones
Trustee

Sioned is a senior manager and leader in the not-for-profit sector where she has worked for over two decades. In that time she has had a variety of roles in a range of organisations including Oxfam, the UK’s leading sight loss charity – RNIB, the women’s rights NGO founded by Annie Lennox – The Circle, and currently is a Director at the Tax Justice Network. In addition, she is a trustee at Magic for Smiles, a small charity working to support the wellbeing of refugee children through magic shows and tuition.

The common thread weaving through Sioned’s professional and personal life is her desire for social justice. Originally from North Wales, having moved to London in the late 80’s for work, Sioned returned to the North West and settled with her family in Chester in 2017. In her spare time, she attends live music and events and is thoroughly enjoying experiencing the wonderful array of cultural arts venues and events across the region, but of course, especially Storyhouse.

Dadiow Lin
Trustee

Dadiow is a freelance theatre director. She directs contemporary plays, adaptation of classics, new writings, and devised performances. Her works has been presented at Storyhouse, the Young Vic, Soho Theatre, RADA, Theatre 503, Southwark Playhouse, Camden People’s Theatre, Rich Mix, BAC and more. Dadiow is the recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award 2019.  She directed Storyhouse’s highly acclaimed staging of Miss Julie in 2020, before joining the board.

Before moving to the UK, she worked as an Assistant Director on productions at the National Theatre of Taiwan. She also directed classical and contemporary plays, and won the Best Director award at the Youth Talent Theatre Festival Competition back in Taiwan.  Dadiow’s cultural background pushes her to view the world through various lenses and makes her more sensitive towards the cultural differences that she’s surrounded by. This makes her naturally bring fresh perspectives to a production while directing.

Rio Matchett
Trustee

Rio chairs our Access & Inclusion Committee and is our A&I champion.  She is a PhD researcher in queer theory and periodical studies at the University of Liverpool, where she sits on the working groups for Decolonising the Curriculum, and the Postgraduate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She is a founder of the Queer Modernism(s) conference at the University of Oxford, and the Post Graduate Representative for the European Society of Periodical Research.

Rio is a freelance dramaturg, and currently works as the Furnace Coordinator at Leeds Playhouse. She has worked as a reader for organisations including the Bruntwood Prize and Hampstead theatre, and as a director has worked for the Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic, the Traverse, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, and Unity.  Rio has transformed our work in access and inclusion and her tireless work for Storyhouse has been key in pushing us to achieve Arts Council England’s current high rating for Storyhouse’s creative case for diversity.

Maria Perny
Trustee

Maria has over 25 years experience in the global energy marketing and trading industry being based in Houston, Texas for the majority of her working life while holding senior executive positions with responsibility for teams in the USA, UK, India and Singapore. Her roles have covered Commercial Trading and Financial Management, Risk Management, large-scale technology project implementation, Change Management and Operations in addition to strategic leadership responsibilities. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

While living in Houston, she was on the Operating Committee of Books Between Kids, a wonderful charity working to help impoverished and at-risk children own books of their own and to develop a love of reading. In 2021, she moved to Chester and having recently retired is delighted to be able to leverage her expertise for the benefit of the wonderful welcoming community of Chester and specifically the Storyhouse mission.

Vidya Venugopal
Trustee

Vidya is an international development lawyer working in a multilateral development bank and has predominantly worked in the banking sector over the last decade. At her current role, she is responsible for advising clients in South Asia on the legal and operational issues concerning the projects being financed by the institution. Prior to coming to Chester with her spouse, she lived, studied and/or worked for significant periods in India, Middle East and the US.

With a passion for art and literature and specifically the institutions and places that enables their impact, she is looking forward to applying her skills to support the Storyhouse mission. Most days when in Chester, she can be found taking her break in one of the many indie coffee shops that dot the city.