Watershed is delighted to be welcoming six new trustees to our board;  Charlotte Lester, Kate Arthurs, Louise deCordova, Louise Goux-Wirth, Sidharth Sharma and Tricia Tuttle. Following an engaged and energising open application process – closely aligned to our methods for inclusive recruitment – we are delighted to be working with trustees who will bring new wisdom, networks and questions to our governance process.  

Watershed Trustees have the overall legal responsibility for our group of companies – including the registered charity. The board ensures Watershed has a clear strategy and our work and goals are in line with our charitable purpose. A board is not engaged with the day-to-day running of a charity, but is a place for honest feedback, careful insight and moral support.

Clare Reddington, Watershed CEO says

"We were blown away by the number of applications we received and the deep care demonstrated for the future of Watershed.  Ensuring we have diversity at every level of Watershed is really important to us, so we were delighted to work with Be On Board to help cultivate applications and were very grateful for their support. Huge thanks to Aisha Thomas (Representation Matters)  for participating in the selection process.

We are so excited by the brilliant people who will be coming to work with us and the mix of skillsets and backgrounds they add. Join us in welcoming them! "

New Board members from the top, left to right:
Kate Arthurs, Louise deCordova, Louise Goux-Wirth, Charlotte Lester, Sidharth Sharma, Tricia Tuttle.

About Kate Arthurs

Kate Arthurs is a cultural relations specialist and cultural diplomat, working internationally across all art forms, instigating exchange and creative dialogue to build trust between people and partners. As the British Council's Global Director of Arts, she led the team that shaped and ran the UK government's flagship £60m Cultural Protection Fund, protecting culture at risk internationally from conflict and climate change. Kate has experience living and working across the UK and in Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Vietnam and South Sudan, and is a 2021 John F Kennedy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. 

About Louise deCordova

Louise deCordova is an experienced governance professional, qualified accountant and a creative with roots in musical theatre and the Bristol music scene.  Having successfully completed Bristol’s inaugural Award Winning Stepping Up Leadership Programme, Louise is an advocate for opportunities that break down barriers to participation.  Her love for storytelling through music, from Drum and Bass to Funk has seen her perform as a vocalist for Bristol bands such as Smith&Mighty and Edenheight and engage with audiences from Japan to LA. 

About Louise Goux-Wirth

Louise Goux-Wirth is an award winning equality specialist with 13+ years experience in delivering culture change through strategy development, training, stakeholder engagement and programme management. She works as a Programme Manager for a mental health charity and also has previous trustee experience with Bristol and Solent Mind. Her specialism is in race, LGBT+ equality and mental health across the Higher Education and charity sector. Louise has a strong intersectional approach to her work and is passionate about bringing stakeholders together through innovation and creativity to create change. 

About Charlotte Lester

Charlotte Lester is a policy, funding and charity professional with experience leading high profile national policy development and evaluation, multimillion pound investments, collaborating cross agency and with government and academic partners.

Outside of work she is a lover of improv, the power of stories and all things post-apocalyptic fiction. 

About Sidharth Sharma

Sidharth Sharma is serial entrepreneur and has spent 20 years creating strong and resilient brands, developing innovative sustainable strategies and initiatives to bring about positive change in business practices and consumer behaviour. He is Creative Director for Shambala Festival, and co-founder of Kambe Events. Sid works as a consultant advising companies and organisations on aspects of event management and environmental sustainability, including supporting Coventry City of Culture Trust. In 2001, Sid set up the well loved Bristol brand The Thali Café which turned into an award-winning chain of restaurants which he sold 15 years later. 

About Tricia Tuttle

Tricia Tuttle has been Director of BFI Festivals since 2019, overseeing the teams that run BFI London Film Festival and BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival. Tricia’s passion for film has seen her work as a programmer, lecturer, writer and journalist.  She is passionate about making the BFI’s Festivals more inclusive and has been instrumental in evolving BFI Festivals, continuing to expand audience reach year on year. Under her leadership, the LFF has introduced new initiatives such UK-wide cinema venue partnerships and digital screenings which have opened up the Festival to audiences around the UK, and LFF For Free which aims to create dialogue around the programme, and remove barriers to access, an initiative which has expanded the reach of the Festival by over 50% since 2019. As Deputy Head of Festivals, she developed BFI Flare’s long running LGBTQIA+ Mentorship programme now delivered in partnership with BAFTA and BFI Flare’s FiveFilms4Freedom in partnership with the British Council.  

Watershed is also delighted to welcome Kirsti Kavanagh as our new Head of Finance. Kirsti joins us from the Research Centre of University of Bristol. She is a qualified Financial Accountant with strong experience working in higher education and service-led industries including tech and financial services. She has an MBA from University of Bath and is an advocate of Women in Business & Leadership roles, Workplace & Staff Wellbeing and Environmental Sustainability. We are really excited for Kirsti to begin work with us. 

 

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