The Board has been set up to represent the wide range of stakeholders in The Creative Quarter initiative including the private sector, high-profile established local businesses such as BioCity, Boots and EON, and the public sector with representatives from Nottingham City Council and both universities.
Susan Hallam MBE, Chair of The Board
Susan Hallam MBE, founder and CEO of Nottingham-based Hallam Internet, has been appointed as Chair of the Creative Quarter Company Board.
An Anglo-American and fan of all things digital, Susan joins the board as the company builds on its success supporting creative and digital start-ups to support more established SMEs and more digital and technology-based businesses - particularly those with potential for significant jobs growth - spreading our impact all the way from the studios of artists and designer-makers to the frontiers of fin-tech and the life-sciences. Susan was awarded an MBE for services to entrepreneurship and innovation in the Queen’s Honours 2018.
Formerly a Senior Lecturer in Computing at Nottingham Trent University with specialist interest in digital technologies, Susan also held senior digital marketing roles at BT and Capital One before establishing Hallam in 1999. A Premier Google Partner, Hallam employs more than 50 people who, under Susan’s leadership, provide a full range of digital marketing services to companies regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Nottingham City Council representatives
Councillor Rebecca Langton
As Portfolio Holder for Skills, Growth and Economic Development, Rebecca is responsible for city centre management, business, employment, growth and neighbourhood regeneration at Nottingham City Council. Rebecca represents Bilborough ward and has been a Councillor since 2019. From 2019-2021, Rebecca was portfolio holder for Communities, with responsibility for a range of services local people rely on. Rebecca helped to coordinate the community response to the COVID pandemic, working with officers to establish the ‘golden number’, a single point of contact for help during the pandemic and offer support to those shielding.
Councillor Leslie Ayoola
Leslie Ayoola is the Councillor for Mapperley Ward, and Executive Assistant for Regeneration and Safe Nottingham. Cllr Ayoola grew up and lived at Pearmain Drive and attended the local schools in this ward.
He has a Masters Degree in Youth & Community Development and a BA in Business which explains his passion for employment and entrepreneurship as tools to help communities grow.
Cllr Ayoola has spent over 20 years working across the private, public and voluntary sectors and has established a number of SME’s and Social Enterprises within the city, thus taking a keen interest in Social Entrepreneurship. He was subsequently a finalist in the Nottingham Social Enterprise Awards for Social Entrepreneur of the year and Start up Social Enterprise of the year. He has also served as a Public Governor for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Nottingham Trent University representatives
Craig Chettle, Board Member
Craig Chettle, CEO of Confetti Media Group, has been a Creative Quarter board member since the initiative was launched in 2012 and was recently appointed Chair of the Board. Craig, who has previously worked as a tour manager, sound engineer and producer, founded the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in 1994. It began life as a small business and has grown to become one of the country’s leading education establishments, currently home to over 1,300 students studying vocational and degree courses in music, gaming, film & TV, digital media and events. It’s also part of the Nottingham Trent University family. The Confetti Media Group, which includes Notts TV, is now one of the main creative industry employers in the city and region, with over 250 employees and a membership of more than 300 creative businesses.
Fiona Anderson, Board Member
Fiona Anderson is Head of Civic Engagement at Nottingham Trent University, Fiona leads the university’s work with local authority partners across Nottinghamshire. Fiona manages NTU’s civic collaboration with the University of Nottingham under the ‘Universities for Nottingham’ banner. Fiona has an MSc in Local and Regional Economic Development.
Independent representatives
Barry Hayman, Board Member
Barry Hayman is the founder and director of Hayman Creative, a thriving creative business providing printing, signage, display graphics and framing. The company has been based in Sneinton Market, a newly renovated area of the Creative Quarter, since 1996 serving clients from large, multinational businesses to local SMEs, creatives and students.
Wolfgang Buttress, Board Member
Artist Wolfgang Buttress creates multi-sensory artworks that draw inspiration from our evolving relationship with the ‘natural’ world. He explores and interprets scientific discoveries, collaborating with architects, landscape architects, scientists and musicians to create human-centered experiences.
Wolfgang has produced artworks on four continents including Europe, Australia, Japan and the U.S. He is well known for the UK Pavilion (Milan EXPO 2015) and The Hive, a collaboration with physicist Dr Martin Bencsik, BDP, Hoare Lea and Simmonds Studio, currently installed at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, England. The project has won over 27 awards including the gold medal for best in show.
Current projects include sculptures in Taiwan, U.S, Australia and United Kingdom.
Annabel Franks, Board Member
Annabel has had a long career in retail buying, product development and brand management. She spent 8 years in Fashion and Lifestyle buying at Top Shop and Athena, prior to moving to Nottingham in 1995 to join Boots (Walgreens Boots Alliance) where her most recent role was Vice President and Global Category Director for Cosmetics, Gift and Accessories.
Annabel has always focussed on delivering creative and innovative solutions to commercial challenges, and was a catalyst for change throughout her 23 years at Boots. In her senior leadership capacity she drove an agenda championing diversity and inclusion, focussing on helping women thrive.
She believes that the route to sustainable innovative outcomes lies in brave ideas, strong collaboration and partnership, and, above all, an ambitious vision of the future.
Annabel lives in Nottingham.