Trustees

Yvonne Hulme

Yvonne is a qualified teacher and musician who has worked in music education for 30 years. The majority of this time has been with Cumbria Music Service as a teacher and senior manager, which has enabled her to work with children and schools to maintain quality music provision for all. She has worked in a variety of different school settings as a peripatetic string and keyboard teacher.

Yvonne has also project managed large scale concerts with multiple schools, youth orchestras and has worked with local and national partners to provide a wide range of projects for schools across Cumbria. She is passionate about inspiring every child to learn an instrument, to sing or to further explore their musical creativity. She believes this inspiration often comes from experiencing a live musical performance.

Outside of education Yvonne enjoys playing the violin with local orchestras and ensembles. 

Nigel MacLennan

Professor Nigel MacLennan qualified as a chartered psychologist and was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society for making multiple advances in psychology. He created and published the first process model of coaching, in Coaching and Mentoring, the first tool to enable any normal adult to generate vast numbers of creative ideas, systematically and reliably in real time, on demand, in Opportunity Spotting the first culture management tools in Awesome Purpose the first organisational vision assessment and formation tools in…

Nigel loves taking previously unsolved human performance and leadership problems and gradually creating, testing and refining solutions, using action research methods. And, most enjoyably of all, sharing the new techniques to enable others to improve their performance. Nigel’s main role is leadership coaching of CEOs, MDs, directors and senior managers, and providing psychotherapy for executives and professionals.

Nigel was one of the trustees of the Institute of Management who introduced best practice governance that facilitated the award of chartered status, to the now Chartered Institute of Management. He was elected President of the British Psychological Society and led the organisation towards the legal and regulatory compliance expected by the Charity Commission.

Terry St Clair

Keith Sansum

Keith has worked for various organisations over the years – British Rail, Tesco, the police (as a police community support officer) but it was his interest in local, community matters that led to him co-founding the Clarendon and Westbury Community Association in the 1980s. The Association helped to raise money to buy an old school building for the community, which became an important hub for meetings and events; a space for people to connect with each other and discuss matters of local concern. Keith was instrumental in arranging meetings between locals and the Home Office minister to address local concerns and in his capacity as local councillor, has worked with numerous outside agencies such as the police, councils and MPs to address issues at the heart of the community. He’s been a local town councillor for twenty years, a local county councillor for 13, and a local district councillor for 25 years. The important work he has done through being on local councils has seen him be a passionate advocate for the local community and up until January of this year, he continued to keep the community association in the public eye.

Football is his other passion. Although now retired, Keith was a local football referee for 25 years and ran a children’s football team for children in deprived areas with little or no social skills. Through football and a love of playing, he taught them valuable team skills, helping to integrate them more into the community. (His lifelong work to help his community and especially children in the more deprived areas very much resonate with the ethos of Playground Proms).

Sue Stapely LlB (Hons) FIPR FRSA

Sue is Playground Proms’ Chair, a solicitor and strategic communications consultant, specialising in discreet reputation, crisis and issues management. Formerly a senior consultant at Quiller Consultants in London, her clients include arts organisations, professional partnerships, independent schools, charities, financial and government institutions and high-profile individuals. She specialises in handling all the communications of difficult matters and defending her clients’ reputations to all their critical audiences. Sue’s previous appointments have included some years as a director of award-winning communications, branding and design agency, Fishburn Hedges; as Head of Public Relations for the Law Society of England & Wales (the professional body for all solicitors); as a partner heading a family law team across three offices of solicitors, Heald Nickinson; as manager of two Citizens’ Advice Bureaux while taking a law degree and a first career with BBC TV of ten years making programmes.

Sue took a law degree and qualified as a solicitor while her sons were babies and after a successful period in private practice she moved into an advisory role with the Law Society, launching the BBC’s Action Line, mounting Make a Will Week, collaborating on Clarity (the plain legal English campaign), delivering the Save Legal Aid campaign and liaising with the 125 local law societies around the country. Throughout this time, she was one of the leading spokespeople on legal matters, appearing regularly on Law in Action, Today, Newsnight and Question Time, as well as acting as one of Jimmy Young’s ‘Legal Beagles’ on his radio programme for some years. She is still a quite regular media commentator. An expanded version of her book, Media Relations for Lawyers, continues to be a useful guide and supports her continuing work as a presentation and media skills coach.

In addition to her professional work, Sue has always undertaken pro bono (unpaid) legal work and helped set up LawWorks, the national pro bono movement. She mounted the campaign for Sally Clark, wrongfully convicted of murdering her two babies and imprisoned for three years. When the verdict was overturned this case was described by the High Court as the “worst miscarriage of justice” it had seen.

Always politically active, Sue chaired the 300 Group (the campaign to get 300 women MPs) and stood as an SDP candidate in the 1987 General Election. She served as a Board Member of the South West Thames Regional Health Trust, of the London Ambulance Service, of the National Consumer Council, of the government’s Countryside Agency and was a founder board member of the Media Standards Trust to raise standards in journalism. She continues to be well networked with many influencers in Westminster.

Passionate about the performing arts from her time with BBC TV, Sue has also always played a voluntary role in this field. She is currently a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has sat on the boards of several theatres including the Royal Court, the Spare Tyre Theatre Company, the Young Vic and on the board of Brighton Dome & Festival. She was a Trustee of the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art for 15 years while she helped raise funds to create a £28m theatre and rehearsal block in Hammersmith, London, where she also sponsored a student throughout his degree course.

Now settled in the Cotswolds, Sue lives with her husband, a retired management consultant and she is increasingly involved in local politics and arts. Her older son is a civil engineer living in Melbourne, her younger son is also a lawyer. Apart from the performing arts her other passions are books, movies (she’s a BAFTA member), good conversation and fast cars. For more information, please see her Who’s Who entry or www.suestapely.com.

Photograph by Andrew Ogilvy Photography

Sujesh Sundarraj