Staff and Governors at the London Film School

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Staff and Governors

Adam Sharman - Editing Instructor/Technician: Biography
Alan Bernstein - Deputy Director/Head of Studies/Term 1 Tutor: Biography
Alex Duxbury - Assistant to the Director
Andrea Corbett - Skillset Screen Academies - Head of Projects
Andrew Speller -GBCT - Senior Camera Lecturer: Biography
Archie Tait - Head of Workshops
Annette Streete - Admissions Manager
Dr. Barry Salt - Film History Lecturer / Term 4 / 5 Tutor: Biography
Ben Gibson - Director: Biography
Brian Dunnigan - Head of Screenwriting: Biography
Carlo Muzi - Camera Department Equipment Supervisor: Biography
Carolyn Atherton - Workshops Manager: Biography
Cecilia Sala - Development Officer
Diana Charnley - Head of Production Design: Biography
Harriet Cox - Head of Camera: Biography
Hayden Griffin - Senior Production Design Lecturer
Howard Thompson - Head of Sound Department: Biography
Jaime Estrada-Torres - Head of Editing: Biography
Jane Hewitt - Programming Officer
John Sibley - Admissions Co-ordinator
Karen Warnock - Sound Assistant: Biography
Kate Hughes - Head of Marketing: Biography
Les Blair - Term 2 and 3 course tutor: Biography
Lesley Edge - Student Services Manager - Staff Governor
Louise Lawrence - Film Librarian
Lynn Broadhouse - Book Keeper
Margaret Glover - 6th Term Tutor and Senior Lecturer: Biography
Moshe Nitzani - IT Manager
Naomi Russell - Development Director
Nick Roddick - MA Film Curating Course Leader
Rachael Stevens - Development Manager
Roger Chinn - Front Office, Estates and Facilities Manager
Ronaldo Fagarazzi - Stage Lighting: Biography
Stefania Marangoni - Senior Editing Lecturer: Biography
Suzy Gillett - International Relations Manager: Biography
Terry Hopkins - Deputy Head of Camera: Biography
Shirley Streete-Bharath - Director of Operations: Biography
Umpha Koroma - Projectionist: Biography
Wojciech Wrzesniewski - Senior Sound Lecturer: Biography

You can view all staff biographies here

Governors

Mike Leigh OBE - Chairman

Mike Leigh's credits as writer/director include Bleak Moments; Meantime; High Hopes; Life is Sweet; Naked; Secrets and Lies; Career Girls; Topsy-Turvy; All or Nothing and Vera Drake, garnering numerous Oscar and BAFTA nominations and awards, a Cannes Palme D'or, a Venice Golden Lion amongst many other accolades. He has also written and directed over twenty stage plays, including Abigail's Party, and the most recent Two Thousand Years, which has been enjoying a successful run at the National Theatre in London. Mike Leigh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, at Camberwell and Central Art Schools, and at the London Film School.

Margaret Matheson - Vice Chair

Margaret Matheson is a film producer and has been running her independent production company, Bard Entertainments, since 1993. Prior to Bard Entertainments she was Chief Executive of Island World and a founding director of Zenith Productions Ltd. Margaret Matheson's producing credits include Revengers Tragedy; American Cousins; Nina's Heavenly Delights; Space Island One; Cardiac Arrest Juice; Wide Eyed and Legless; The Hit; Sid and Nancy and Wish You Were Here, amongst many others.

Sir Michael Wakeford OBE - Chairman of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Sir Michael Wakeford started his career as a barrister and was for 27 years the Clerk of the Mercers Livery Company. For the past 8 years he has been the Trustee of the Portman Estate & director of Portman Settled Estates Ltd. He has been a Governor of LFS since 1985 and is currently Vice Chairman, and Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee. He is also a governor of several schools, both independent & state, including Chairman of the Walsall City Academy.

Peter Armstrong

Peter is an established media lawyer with over 25 years' experience in the film and television industry. He is a partner in leading media law firm, Harbottle & Lewis LLP, an previously at Richards Butler and Theodore Goddard. Peter acts for Hollywood studios and for other leading independent UK , US and European film and television producers and industry organisations. Recent films on which he has been the main production lawyer include "Robin Hood" for Universal Pictures and "War Horse" for DreamWorks Studios. He is legal adviser to Film London and a Governor of the London Film School. He has served as a director of the British Film Commission and as chair of the Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Committee of the International Bar Association. Peter regularly speaks at film and copyright conferences in many countries.

Don Boyd

Don Boyd graduated from the London Film School in 1970 and began his directorial career working for the BBC on Tomorrow's World', followed by award-winning commercials work. As a director Don Boyd has combined his work in the cinema (Twenty One; My Kingdom; Lucia; Intimate Reflections) with a significant body of award-winning television documentaries, including the Ruby Wax Show and the recent "Andrew And Jeremy Get Married". As a producer he has collaborated with many renowned directors including Derek Jarman, Alan Clarke, John Schlesinger, Lindsey Anderson, Nic Roeg, Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Altman. Producing credits include Aria; The Last of England; Scum and The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. Don Boyd is a visiting Professor in Film at Exeter University, a Council Member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain and contributes regularly to The Guardian and The Observer.

Dan Chambers

Dan Chambers runs Blink Films which makes a host of programmes for UK and American Broadcasters. Recent shows include When Boris Met Dave (C4), Monty Don’s Italian Gardens (BBC2), How To Take Stunning Pictures (Channel 5), The Great Sperm Race (Channel 4), Miliband of Brothers (More 4), Chinese Food In Minutes (Channel 5), True Stories (Channel 5), The Silver Pharaoh (PBS), Who Killed The Honeybee? (BBC2).

From 2003 to 2006, Dan was Channel Five's Director of Programming. There he took the channel upmarket with commissions including World War I In Colour, The Buildings That Changed Britain, Battlefield Detectives, the award winning Revealed history strand, extensive arts programming with Tim Marlow and Brian Sewell, TV poems with Simon Armitage, and The Big Ideas That Changed the World – a series of authored films from luminaries including Mikhail Gorbachev, Jesse Jackson, Germaine Greer and Noam Chomsky.

He was previously Channel 4 Commissioning Editor for Science, inventing the long-running strand Secrets of The Dead, and responsible for Scrapheap Challenge, Extinct, Escape from Colditz, and The Private Lives of the Pharaohs. He also had joint responsibility for the first UK run of Big Brother. Before that he was a freelance Producer-Director specializing in science films, with credits including Equinox: Sun Story, and Russian Roulette, both for Channel 4.

Dan began his career in television in 1991 as a researcher on current affairs programmes, after realising he wasn’t cut out for academia, would go insane if he stayed at the Evening Standard’s London’s Diary, and the dawning realisation, he would never make a living as a playwright.

Graham Easton

Graham Easton is Chief Executive of Film Finances Inc., the world leader in completion guarantee services, offering completion bonds to film, television, digital and interactive productions. Film Finances Inc has offices in United States, Canada, Denmark, Italy, France, India and Australia.

Lesley Edge - Staff Governor

Lesley Edge graduated with an MA in Political Science from University of Dundee. Her first job was as a trainee journalist with D C Thomsons & Co and her secretarial experience includes working as a Personal Secretary for the Concert Administrator of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and four years with the Royal Brompton Hospital. She has been with the London Film School since 1998 working originally in a secretarial capacity before becoming Student Services Manager in 2010. Other assorted jobs have included working at the British Open Golf Championships, St Andrews and she was also a Quality Controller in a frozen pea factory. She was elected as Staff Governor in summer of 2005.

John Howkins

John Howkins is a leading figure in creativity, media and intellectual policy. He is Director of Equator Group plc and Equator Films Ltd, a Partner of ITR & Co, Director of the Adelphi Charter and was the originator of the London 'Own It' IP advisory centre. He is also Chair of The Creativity Group which advises on the management of creativity and intellectual property, Chairman of the Creative Business School, Chief Advisor to the Shanghai Creative Industries Centre and International Vice President of the Shanghai School of Creative Studies. Other positions held include Deputy Chairman of the British Screen Advisory Council (BSAC), former Chairman of the London Film School and CREATEC, and Vice Chairman of the Association of Independent Producers. He was associated with Time Warner and HBO from 1982 to1996 with responsibilities for TV and broadcast businesses in Europe. His books include 'CODE and 'The Creative Economy' and he is Visiting Professor of Lincoln University UK, and Shanghai Theatre Academy, China. John has also been appointed to the board of Screen East, the screen agency for the East of England.

Ruth Lesirge

Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School where she is Head of the Centre’s Governance practice consultancy.Range of consultancy work which includes governance and organisational reviews, management development programmes and peer learning groups for senior teams. Currently coaching chief executives and emerging leaders of not-for-profit organisations.

Clients include Positive east (HIV/Aids support), Help the Hospices; Citizens Advice; British Home; Macmillan Cancer Care; Brent Mind; Victim Support, IPPR, Clore Social Leadership Programme, British Red Cross.

An experienced voluntary sector leader and trustee, she has served as the Chief Executive of both a UK front-line eldercare and residential services organisation and a national policy and research (mental health and learning disabilities) foundation is an experienced third sector professional. Has over 35 years experience of work with public and third sectors, including a previous national career in adult literacy and as Principal of an adult and community education service ; now runs her own consultancy Ruth Lesirge Partnership Ltd.

Co-author of ‘Tools for Tomorrow’ and ‘Getting Ready for Enterprise’ (NVCO publications), Recruiting Trustees Toolkit (Governance Hub); edited the ‘Tools for Success’ guides (CassCCE) and the CEs First 100 Days (ACEVO), as well as a number of articles about leadership and governance, published by ACEVO and Caritas Third Sector.

Teaches on the governance module of the Cass Business School MSc in Voluntary Sector Management. A governor of the London International Film School and trustee of the Bishopsgate Institute.

John Rendall

John Rendall worked in documentary filmmaking from 1957 to 1965. He has travelled widely as Director/Cameraman and was Head of Features Marketing at Panavision London. Since 1965 he worked in equipment rental and technical support in all formats from '65 to the present.

Lisa Marie Russo

American-born Lisa Marie Russo produced and directed documentaries in the US, where she won an Emmy for her film Peace. Her work has been widely shown at international festivals and screened on US TV, BBC, Channel 4, the Discovery Channel and many others. Her most recent credits include Shiny Shiny; Bright New Hole in My Heart and Brothers of the Head, as well as numerous shorts including the BAFTA nominated The Tale of the Rat that Wrote.

Amanda Walsh

Amanda is currently Chief Executive of advertising agency Lowe London, recognised as the 8th most creative advertising agency in the World. Previous roles include Chief Executive of the WPP network, Red Cell, partner in agency Walsh Trott Chick Smith and Managing Director of WCRS.

Amanda was a member of the IPA Board 1993-2003 (Institute of Practitioners of Advertising), Chaired the IPA Training Committee (1987-1995), was President of WACL in 2002 (Women in Advertising and Communications London) and featured in AdAge's "Women to Watch" in 2005.

She is also a Non-Executive Director of the UK Film Council and a Trustee of the Brain & Spine Foundation Charity.

Bertrand Faivre

Bertrand started as Head of Acquisitions at UGC France before joining Les Productions Lazennec (La Haine, Scent of Green Papaya, and Cyclo) in 1992 until 2001. He ran the short film section at Lazennec Tout Court for 5 years. He began producing feature films in 1996. He set up independently a UK production company, THE BUREAU in 2000 & a French one, LE BUREAU in October 2001 to develop long-term relationships with some of the best European directors of their generation.

In the past 10 years, Bertrand has been producing or co-producing over 12 feature films in France, England, Ireland, Romania, Norway, Mexico, India and the US. They include "The Warrior", directed by Asif Kapadia which won, inter alia, two Bafta Awards including Best British Film, 'The devils', by Christophe Ruggia who won the Grand Prize in Cannes Junior, 'Burnt Out' by multi-award winning director Fabienne Godet and horror-cult movie 'Isolation' by Irish director Billy O'Brien. or co-producing such movies as Lynne Ramsay's Bafta-winning critically acclaimed directorial feature debut "Ratcatcher" and Christian Carion's Oscar-Golden Globe- Bafta nominated 'Joyeux Noel'. He is involved in the next projects from most of these directors.

Major partners and references include Film Four, Lions Gate, Ingenious, Celluloid Dreams, Redbus, Pathé UK, Wild Bunch, Miramax, Film Council, Canal+

David Aukin

DAVID AUKIN has been director of the Hampshire Theatre, Leicester Haymarket and the National Theatre before running Film on Four during the 1990s. His credits include SECRETS AND LIES, TRAINSPOTTING and THE CRYING GAME. He formed Daybreak Pictures in 2006 which recently produced THE PROMISE for Channel4.

Satwant Gill

Satwant began her film career as an events manager for the British Council in the early 90s and progressed to being Head of Film for this international cultural relations organisation between 2006-2010. During her time there, she curated film programmes for events and festivals worldwide; managed the Short Film Scheme (providing opportunities for young British film makers to participate in international film festivals); created partnerships on skills development projects between the UK and other countries; managed the production and edit of key industry resource materials, including the annual British Films Catalogue, the Directory of International Film Festivals and the film website www.britfilms.com. She is currently Head of Events for the London Indian Film Festival which specialises in independent Indian film. She is also on the board of Women in Film and Television, and on the management committee of the Satyajit Ray Foundation (and Head of Jury for its annual short film competition.)

Steve Jenkins

STEVE JENKINS has been Head of Film in the BBC Acquisitions Department since 2003. He has worked in programme acquisitions and programming since 1993. Before entering the BBC he researched, produced and directed filmmaker profiles for the South Bank Show and served as Associate Editor of the Monthly Film Bulletin in the 1980s. He has contributed to Time Out, Sight and Sound and published THE IMAGE AND THE LOOK a study of the work of Fritz Lang.

Departmental Visiting Lecturers

Chris Allies - Rostrum Camera Instructors
Vasco Hexel - Film Music Consultant
Simon Louvish Screen Studies Lecturer