Vanessa Rawlings-Jackson started her career in the arts as the first General Manager at Perth Theatre and then held key marketing roles as Marketing Director and Consultant to major UK companies including Birmingham Rep, Nottingham Playhouse and Leicester Haymarket.

She has previously worked with Arts Council England specialising in marketing and audience development and business planning. During this period she gained experience in a wide range of art forms and undertook consultancy work for an extensive range of cultural organisations throughout the UK and abroad as well as for the Arts Councils of England and Wales.

Vanessa specialises in governance, business planning and implementation, advocacy and developing skills and strategies for fundraising and philanthopry. She is a Fellow of the royal Society of the Arts, Chair of Retina Dance, and a director of Audiences UK.

Fred has worked in the cultural and creative industries as an artist, craftsperson and teacher, in arts organisation and management, as a development consultant and researcher, at a senior level in the arts funding system, and an investor and company director.

In the 80s he was director of the Midland Group Arts Centre inNottingham, one of the major contemporary arts venues of its time, embracing exhibitions, cinema and performance, and he chaired the National Association of Arts Centres. Subsequently he was Director of the Tyneside Cinema and its film festival inNewcastle, before moving into consultancy with Comedia. Alongside his role at Cultivate Fred is Business Development Adviser with Creative Leicestershire.

He has held directorships of several cultural organisations, currently including Advantage Creative Services Ltd and Nottingham Media Centre Ltd (Broadway) which he chairs.

As an Executive Director at Cultivate Fred specialises in organisational development.

Liam studied International Relations and Modern History at St. Andrews University. Before joining Cultivate he worked on Film and TV productions for Raindog and BBC Scotland, and at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival.

He is involved in all aspects of Cultivate's work with responsibilities for Project Management and Communications and Events. He has recently completed delivery of Creative Innovation, the business support element of the Igniting Ambition programme in the East Midlands, and currently runs Viewpoints- an online survey programme for museums and galleries in the region.