BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Carol Lake (Chair)

Carol Lake is a managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa for the investment bank JP Morgan.

She heads the bank's social responsibility function and is responsible for its community and outreach programmes, its philanthropic work and the different mentoring and volunteering schemes it sponsors.

She has had a long connection with the theatre and is a regular visitor.

Carol joins us at a truly remarkable time, with the 2012 Games, which are on our doorstep, only months away and as we witness east London growing to rival the West End as the heart of the capital.

Lady Stratford

Lady Stratford lives in the borough of Newham and has been a regular visitor and supporter of Stratford East for over 22 years.

She has been a Board Member for 14 years and a previous Chair of the Board. Sally works in local government as a Manager in Newham Social Services and has extensive knowledge of the issues in the borough.

Andrew Cowan

Andrew Cowan is the Senior Partner of Devonshires, a law firm based in the City of London, where he heads the Banking and Governance Department working primarily for Not for Profits and Charities.  

Michael Eboda

A former lawyer, Michael has been a journalist/publisher for the past 20 years.

He has worked in various capacities, on most national newspapers, including a 15-year stint at The Observer.

He has also been Editorial Director of EMG Ltd, at the time Europe's largest minority ethnic publishing house, which boasted 10 titles to its name.

Latterly, for the past four and a half years, Michael has run his own publishing firm, Powerful Media, which publishes The Powerlist, Future Leaders and has become very influential in offering advise to corporate Britain on the engagement with, attraction of and retention of minority ethnic graduates and higher level staff.

Clients include JP Morgan, Thomson Reuters, Barclays Capital, Deloitte, Google and Ernst & Young.

Powerful Media is now expanding overseas and has been asked to produce a series of publications highlighting investment opportunities in West Africa.

Michael is one of the prime movers behind the Powerlist Foundation, a charity that runs a leadership summer school for high-flying black undergraduates and which is working on taking over a failing secondary school under the academy programme.

In his spare time, Michael is keen on sport. His love of Manchester United is legendary.

Derek Joseph

Derek Joseph was for over 30 years Managing Director of HACAS Group, a major quoted research and consultancy company.

He now acts as a non-executive director of a number of property, financial and business incubator companies.

Derek is Chairman of A2Dominion, one of the largest housing associations, a voluntary board member of Homeless International and the London Housing Foundation.

He is also an avid theatregoer and supporter of Watford FC.

Paul O'Leary (Vice Chair)

Paul O'Leary has managed and executive produced over one hundred theatrical productions both in the UK and overseas since establishing his own company in 1992.

He is currently associated with Michael Codron Plays Ltd as General Manager of Productions & Consultant for Nederlander Theatres (Aldwych) Ltd.

Prior to 1992 Paul was Production Manager at Theatre Royal Stratford East for three years, having earlier worked for both the scenic construction company Kimpton Walker Ltd and the Royal Adelphi Theatre London as Technical Manager.

Paul is a Member of the Society of London Theatre.

Jo Melville

Jo Melville a local girl was born and went to school in Newham and began her acting career on The Theatre Royal Stage in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl.

Jo's career path has led to writing, directing and producing various productions and she runs her own company Eye 2 Eye Productions.

Jo has been a Board Member since 2009 and having developed and grown at The Theartre Royal, it is her second home.

Jo enjoys the opportunity to encourage stimulate and strengthen the talent of the community and be a part of a team that gives them a voice.

Mark Pritchard

Mark is the longest serving Board Member of Pioneer Theatres, including a spell as acting Chair.

He worked with Joan Littlewood for 10 years starting with Oh! What A Lovely War and in various capacities including Production Manager, Set and Lighting Designer.

He has pursued a successful career as a Lighting Designer, lighting over 40 productions in the West End and working at most of the major regional theatres, throughout Europe, in the U.S.A., Canada and Australia.

He has also worked at drama schools including RADA, LAMDA and Central, both in a designing and teaching capacity. Together with Joan Littlewood, Mark is responsible for resolving the problems of the freehold of the Theatre Royal Stratford East and forming the Theatre Workshop Trust, to hold the freehold. He is the Chair of Theatre Workshop Trust and of Stratford East Trading Ltd, the trading subsidiary of Pioneer Theatres Ltd.

Sabine Vinck

Sabine Vinck is Associate Dean for Executive Education at London Business School.

Originally from Belgium, Sabine joined London Business School in April 2005 as Director of its finance programmes. In 2008, she was appointed Associate Dean for the School’s MBA programme, which is recognised as one of the top MBA programmes in the world. Her role was expanded to encompass all of the School’s degree programmes in early 2009. She took on her current assignment in June 2010.

Prior to joining London Business School, Sabine spent 10 years in the finance industry, initially working for Applied Technology, a Boston-based venture capital firm. She then joined State Street Corporation, where she held management positions in State Street’s fund administration, risk management, outsourcing and consulting units, both in Europe and the US. She started her career teaching and doing research in acoustics.

Sabine completed post-graduate studies in physics, finance and education. She holds masters degrees from Cornell University and Harvard University. She is also an enthusiastic amateur pianist and is the winner of the Pianist – Yamaha Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in 2005.