ENO announces changes to Board of Trustees

19th August 2019 in Press

English National Opera (ENO) is pleased to announce that Sally Osman is joining the ENO Board of Trustees with immediate effect.

Sally replaces Catherine May, who steps down having served on the Board for eight years.  For the last three years Catherine has also been Senior Independent Director.   This role will now be taken on by Patty Dimond who has been on the Board since 2016.  Patty Dimond has also been appointed Chair of Audit & Risk.

Nick Addyman is to take over as Chair of ENO’s Finance Committee having served four years on the Board – he replaces Nick Allan who is stepping down from the position of Chair. Nick Allan served the ENO Board for over eleven years and for the last three years was also Deputy Chair.   Nick Allan recently has been appointed Chair of National Opera Studio.

A respected and highly experienced communications expert, Sally Osman was Director of Royal Communications (based at Buckingham Palace) from June 2013 until December of last year. She was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen. Prior to joining the Royal Household, Sally was Director of Corporate Communications at Sony Europe, as well as Director of Communications for the BBC. She has also had senior communications roles at Channel 5 and BskyB.

Commenting on the appointment, ENO Chair, Dr Harry Brunjes says, “We are delighted to welcome Sally to the board, and look forward to benefitting from her wealth of experience and expertise.  I would also like to take this moment to thank both Nick Allan for his loyalty and Catherine May for her commitment during their long years of service to English National Opera.”

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Notes to Editors:

About English National Opera

English National Opera is the national opera company dedicated to one simple aim: making opera for everyone. We sing in English to be as accessible to the widest possible audience, as well as offering tickets for as little as ten pounds and we create opera that feels different, more theatrical and creatively daring. We’ve been doing this to an internationally recognised standard since being founded in 1931 as Sadler’s Wells Opera.

We are determined to open up the genre: nearly half of our audiences in 2018/19 were first-time bookers. Our learning and participation programme ENO Baylis last year touched the lives of more than 15,000 school children and community groups, and our talent development programme nurtures the careers of singers (the ENO Harewood Artist programme) and conductors (the Charles Mackerras Fellowship). We also give free tickets to Under 18s in our balcony for opening nights, Friday and Saturday performances.

Last year, the percentage of audience members under 44 increased by 13% year-on-year and the proportion of our audience with a black or minority ethnic background increased from 4% to 10%. In January of this year, we announced that we would be recruiting four new members of our Chorus from a BAME background, as well as four BAME Director Observerships.

Our ongoing support and development of British talent meant 80% of the cast in the 2017-18 season were British or British trained. That’s important to us and is fundamental to our ethos of giving new talent their break.

ENO is about opera for everyone.

ENO Board

As of 19 August 2019 and following this appointment, the ENO Board comprises

Dr Harry Brunjes, Chair

Nicholas Addyman

Sally Burgess

Patty Dimond

Phil Edgar-Jones

Louise Jeffreys

Huw Van Steenis

Lord Sumption

Patti White

Anthony Whitworth-Jones

Sally Osman

John Cooke (Board Secretary)