Chairman - Rod Aldridge
 
Rod Aldridge is a social entrepreneur with over 40 years’ experience of working in the Public Sector. He was the Founder of the Capita Group and led the group from its formation in 1984 to becoming the market leader provider of support and professional services to the government and to the private sector in the UK. In 1987 he led the MBO of the group from CIPFA and the flotation of Capita on the USM in 1989 valued at £8 million. Today the group is a FTSE 100 company, employs 27,000 people and interacts with 33 million people through the services it delivers. It has a market capitalisation of over £4 billion and is the best performing share ever in the FTSE.

Prior to Capita, Rod worked in local government for 10 years with East Sussex County Council, Brighton Borough Council, Crawley District Group and West Sussex County Council, joining CIPFA in 1974 ultimately becoming its Technical Director.

In July 2006 Rod retired as Chairman of Capita to establish the Aldridge Foundation to continue with his work on public service reform and to focus on his charitable activities involving educational underachievement and social exclusion.

He is a patron and trustee of the Prince’s Trust and was the Chairman of the CBI’s public services strategy board at its inception in 2003 through to July 2006. Rod is also Chair of ‘v’ the charity launched in May 2006 which aims to inspire and engage over 1 million new youth volunteers. In January 2007 he was appointed Chairman of The Lowry, a theatre and arts venue in Salford and was appointed a non-executive Director of Foreign & Commonwealth Office Services Business.

He is a qualified accountant with CIPFA and was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2006. Rod was awarded an OBE in 1994 New Years Honours List for services to the computer industry and was given the freedom of the City of London in 1996. He is on the Court of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. He is a regular speaker at conferences and is a contributor to the debate on public service reform.

Rod’s interests are his family and sport, mainly golf, cricket and football. He also enjoys travelling and the theatre.

Jane Frost

Jane Frost joined HM Revenue and Customs as Director of Individuals Customer Unit on 23 May from the Department of Constitutional Affairs where she was Director of Consumer Strategy. She has more than 20 years marketing experience. An accomplished corporate strategist and marketer, her vision and creative expertise have driven notable results across commercial and non-commercial sectors at both a national and international level.
Cambridge educated and a Unilever trained marketer, Jane was previously at the BBC, most recently as Director of Marketing & Strategy for BBC Technology and prior to that as Controller of Corporate & Brand Marketing. Jane was responsible for the BBC films Perfect Day, World Leaders and Small People which broke industry records for awareness and approval while the conversion of the promotion Perfect Day into a charity CD raised over £2.5 m for Children in Need.
Jane spent 10 years with Shell, where she gained extensive international experience working in many markets including the US, Australasia, Middle and Far East. While at Shell, Jane was responsible for successfully implementing the organisation’s first ever Pan European advertising campaign and was the driving force behind numerous globally co-ordinated major brand re-launches.
She is known for her ability to deliver results, working with companies to improve organisational structure and processes, brand development, sales and account management functions and overall organisational competitiveness.
Jane also enjoys a busy family life with her husband and two children in South West London and holds a number of non–executive directorships. These are at Wolters Kluwer, Lowry Centre Ltd, BBC Children in Need Ltd and the HTI Educational Trust.

Bill Hinds

Councillor Bill Hinds was the Leader of Salford City Council from 1988 until 2004 and is Chairman of Manchester Airport plc and a Trustee of The Lowry.
He currently represents the Council on a range of outside bodies and serves as a Director of a number of companies responsible for regeneration and employment initiatives.
His political background is in the Trade Union movement, where he rose to the status of National Convenor for the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Workers Union.
His interests include politics, the arts (especially opera and ballet), reading, birdwatching and rugby league.

Rod Holmes

Rodney Holmes is a Retail Projects Director at Grosvenor Ltd, with particular responsibility for the Paradise Street project in Liverpool. Prior to joining Grosvenor he was a director of MAB, the Dutch property company, and has worked in various European countries, North America, Africa and the Middle and Far East, in development and construction; and in both the private and public sectors.

Paul Kelly

Compass Group PLC is the world’s largest foodservice company with annual revenues of c£11 billion. The Group has some 400,000 employees working in more than 90 countries around the world.
Paul Kelly is the Group’s Corporate Affairs Director with responsibility for brand and reputation management, corporate social responsibility, government relations, competition and regulatory affairs and crisis management.
Having had many years experience in working in the foodservice industry, Paul has particular expertise in issues facing the industry, wellness and nutrition, diet and obesity. He is a member of the Food Chain Centre Steering Group, Chairs Business in the Community’s Plough to Plate project, is a Director and Trustee of the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), a member of the Executive Committee of the Food and Drink Federation, Vice-President of the Federation of European Catering Operators, and is on the DfES School Food Trust Board working on School Meal Standards.
Paul took up his current position following Compass’ acquisition of Granada’s hotel and hospitality interests in 2001. At Granada he was Brand Development and Marketing Director for Granada’s restaurants division. Prior to joining Granada he was a management consultant specialising in branding and communications for the leisure and hospitality industry.

David Lancaster

Deputy Leader of Salford City Council. Hallé Board member and long-standing Chairman of major committees of Salford City Council with wide interest in music and the arts.

Barbara Spicer

Barbara joined Salford City Council as Chief Executive in 2006 from Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council where she had worked in a number of roles for more than nine years, most recently as chief executive and director of regeneration and neighbourhoods.

Adrian Vinken

Adrian Vinken started his academic life training to be a Civil Engineer at Sheffield University. After successfully completing his first year, he left to spend a year as a trainee accountant in London only to return to Sheffield to gain an honours degree in philosophy and economics.
After a brief excursion into arts administration in Cardiff, Adrian returned to Sheffield to undertake Ph.D. research in Evolutionary Theory and to start university teaching.
Adrian’s current career really started when he burned his academic bridges in 1980 and left Sheffield University to found and direct the Leadmill arts complex in inner city Sheffield. The Leadmill was developed from an old derelict industrial complex by the voluntary effort of the city’s young unemployed and armies of ex-offenders into a pioneering modern arts centre. The Leadmill doubled as a highly successful pop music venue and night club as well as providing a venue for jazz and classical music, touring theatre, dance and education programmes. Its unique blend of commercialism and cultural activity won it a number of national awards and accolades from Arts Ministers and the Prince of Wales.
There followed other innovative projects including the conversion of derelict listed industrial buildings for new commercial and educational uses.
Adrian is currently Chief Executive of the Theatre Royal Plymouth, the largest regional producing theatre in the country, and Plymouth Pavilions, a large-scale entertainment, arts and leisure complex. Adrian has recently led the development of the radical TR2 building, the largest theatrical production and education facility in Europe, on the waterfront in Plymouth. In 1999, he was appointed by the Secretary of State to be Chairman of Culture South West, the region’s Cultural Consortium. He also currently chairs the National Touring Partnership and Plymouth Common Purpose and is a member of the Arts Council's Drama Panel. Adrian's past honorary responsibilities have included chairing the National Association of Arts Centres and the Arts Development Association and a Governorship of Plymouth University.
Adrian is married with two children. He enjoys distance running, fell-walking and classic car renovation.


Ian Currie

Graduate of Manchester University and chartered accountant. Worked in corporate finance in the region for 20 years including co-founding Zeus Capital the Manchester-based investment bank. Director of a number of public and private companies. Married with four children. Lives in Brindle near Chorley. Supports a number of charities including Crabtree North West Charitable Trust, his family charity

Felicity Goodey - Lifelong President of The Lowry Centre Trust