"We're delighted to welcome Kobna Holdbrook-Smith MBE and Ebele Okobi as Trustees, and Abigail Sewell and Sita Thomas as Ambassador Trustees
Today we announced the appointment of four new trustees to the Young Vic Board. Actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith MBE and Facebook’s Public Policy Director for Africa, the Middle East & Turkey Ebele Okobi join us as Trustees, and director and facilitator Abigail Sewell and director and presenter Sita Thomas join us as Ambassador Trustees.
These appointments come at a significant time for us, as we celebrate our landmark 50th birthday year and also look ahead to our recovery from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Glenn Earle, Chair of the Young Vic Board of Trustees, said: I am delighted to welcome Abigail, Ebele, Kobna and Sita to our Board of Trustees. Each of these exceptional individuals will bring unique perspectives to the deliberations of the Board in the interests of the Young Vic and our community of stakeholders. I look forward to working with them and my fellow Trustees as we plan for the future of our wonderful theatre.
I am excited that, with the appointments of Abigail and Sita, we have inaugurated our groundbreaking Ambassador Trustee programme. We see this as an opportunity for outstanding Directors in the earlier stages of their theatre careers to gain a first-hand understanding of the management and governance of a world-class theatre. We also see it as a huge opportunity for the Young Vic to benefit from their energy, experiences and outlook.
The Ambassador Trustees are fully elected members of our board who will serve a 2-year term. These new positions are intended to support directors moving into creative leadership roles by providing experience in mid-scale theatre governance, including insight into the Artistic and Executive Director roles.The Young Vic Board also believe strongly they will benefit from the perspectives and knowledge the Ambassador Trustees bring. Recruited via the Young Vic’s Directors Program and the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme, the new positions form part of our commitment to making transparent areas of the theatre industry which can seem most opaque, which was first launched in 2019 with our series YV:IDemystify."
