Trustees:
DAVID BALLANTYNE (Treasurer)
David is a chartered accountant and has a diverse commercial background in technology, resources and agritech, predominantly based in Australia but with significant regional experience throughout most of Asia, and also in Europe and North America, allowing him to understand and experience different cultures and their nuances on a number of levels. Since re-locating back to the UK David has worked in the Not-For-Profit sector. Between 2019 and 2022 he worked as Finance Manager of Hoxton Hall, a community-based, heritage-listed theatre. Since April 2022 he has been Head of Finance and Operations at The Reading Agency, a national reading charity and an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation. David joined the board in 2023.
EMILY DI CESARE (Company Secretary)
Emily is a solicitor with more than two decades of cross-sector legal experience. She has worked in private, public and third-sector organisations. She has had the good fortune to work as a senior legal counsel with the Law Society of England and Wales, Royal Institute of British Architects, CDP, and the British Medical Association, and advised on a range of regulatory, governance, compliance and commercial matters, as well as the opportunity to work with an Indigenous run organisation, NPY Women’s Council, in the Northern Territory. Emily is committed to access to justice, and human rights. She joined the Board in 2025.
Katharina Guderian
Katharina Guderian is a marketing professional with experience working in several countries, including Germany, the United States, Argentina and the UK, as well as various sectors, ranging from charities, to finance, to technology. Her main expertise lies in building international marketing functions, developing inter-cultural market entry strategies, as well as journalism and PR. She holds MAs in Theatre, Media and Sports Science, Marketing and an MBA. She joined the board in 2017.
Catriona Sinclair
Catriona is an experienced fundraiser with a background in science and has worked for several charities including the Science Museum Group, RSPB, the Royal Institution of Great Britain and currently FRAME (The Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments). She is also a self-proclaimed ‘culture vulture’ with a love of theatre and the arts. She joined the board in 2017.
Jatinder Verma MBE (Chair)
Jatinder founded Tara Arts in 1977, serving as its first Artistic Director until 2019. During his four decades, he developed a distinctive approach to theatre – adapting Asian dramaturgical principles to European drama - which he has termed “Binglish”. The approach characterised an eclectic range of productions, including Moliere’s Tartuffe at the National Theatre in 1990, where Jatinder was the first-ever non-white director. More recently, Jatinder led on the renovation of Tara Theatre to create Britain’s first multicultural theatre, fusing Edwardian brick and Indian wood; which was formally opened in September 2016. Awarded an MBE for services to diversity in the arts in January 2017, Jatinder has, since stepping down from Tara, formed his formed his own company, JVProductions, to pursue projects in Britain and overseas. He joined the board in 2020, becoming Chair in 2021.
