Trustees

Glasgow born MT (Mary Teresa) Rainey is a widely known and respected leader and entrepreneur in the UK Creative Industries and has held an portfolio of Non-Executive roles in the private sector and the Arts.

In addition to her role as Chair of Lighthouse, she is currently a Trustee of The Booker Prizes, a Trustee of the Venus Blazing Music Trust and a Director of public affairs company Charlotte St Partners.

She has recently served as Non-Executive Director of Hays plc, Clearchannel Inc and Charlotte St Partners Ltd and prior to that completed a six year term as a Non-Executive Director of Channel 4 Television, latterly as Deputy Chair. Previous roles include Non-Executive Directorships of Pinewood Group, WH Smith plc and STV plc.

Her Executive career was spent in Advertising both in the US and the UK where MT founded and built her own agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe which was eventually acquired by WPP.  She remained as Executive Chair till 2006 when she joined Digital Transformation Agency Th_nk as investor and Chair. Th-nk was sold to a US software firm in 2018.

MT has also held important voluntary roles in the public sector and the Arts most notably as Co-Chair of the Development Board of 14-18Now, the highly acclaimed Arts commissioning organisation set up to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. She also served nine years  as Vice Chair of Creative Skillset, the UK Sector Skills Council for the Creative Industries (now ScreenSkills) and as a Director of the  Glasgow School of Art Development Board.

MT is a member and former President of The Thirty Club of London, a member and former Chair of the Marketing Group of Great Britain, and a Fellow of The Marketing Society. She was recently honoured with an OBE for Services to Advertising in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Spencer is a recently retired marketing director with extensive senior executive experience in financial services. For over 30 years at Lloyds Bank, Portman Building Society, Zurich Financial Services and Nationwide Building Society, he led large and specialist marketing teams, contributing significantly to company strategies.

However, before the world of Financial Services beckoned, Spencer began his marketing career in the Arts, working for the The Beck Theatre in Hayes and the Theatre Royal Plymouth.

In his newly retired life, Spencer is keen to use the experience of those years of senior leadership in corporate life to help give a little back to the Arts. This is his second stint supporting Lighthouse as a Board Trustee, and he’s delighted to see the organisation go from strength to strength as the leading artistic light in the area.

Andy has an extensive commercial background at Director level in the retail, hospitality and entertainment industries and has worked at Board level in a wide range of voluntary organisations.

Born and bred in Poole, Andy studied at Bournemouth University and has recently moved back to the area after a thirty year hiatus working in Bath, Bristol and the Midlands. He is now Director of Commercial Enterprise for the renowned Lulworth Estate, a 12,000 acre UNESCO world heritage site with a wide range of commercial interests but with sustainability at its core.

Prior to moving back to Poole, Andy had a career in hotel management, running hotels across the country, most notably taking two consecutive hotels from three to four star and winning awards for sustainability and quality.

From to 2013 to 2018 Andy ran Touchwood Shopping Centre in Solihull, expanding his knowledge to cover broader asset management and property to support his extensive hospitality knowledge.

From 2018 to 2024 Andy took on the role of Director of Property, Partnerships and Media at the NEC Group, the largest events venue in the UK, with a broad responsibility over the portfolio of the International Convention Centre, bp Pulse Live, Utilita Arena Birmingham and the huge NEC exhibition complex.

On a voluntary level, Andy has served extensively with Chamber of Commerce and Round Table, started a Blood Bike charity in Solihull, served over seven years supporting a multi-academy trust and has just finished a term as a Trustee of Citizens Advice. In 2017 Andy was awarded an MBE for his services to the retail, hospitality and charity sectors.

Caroline has held senior commercial leadership roles, setting strategy, managing operations and marketing, across national retail, hospitality and accommodation businesses.

She has worked in both the private sector (Liberty, Laura Ashley, Gap, Langham Wine Estate) and the not-for-profit sector (National Trust, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, The Royal Parks ) and is currently Head of Accommodation, Retail and Catering for the University of Arts London.

In her role as Non-Executive Director for Dorset Food & Drink she supported the growth of local businesses and is passionate about ensuring that a broad menu of arts is accessible to all.

Dolly Hazlitt-Powell has worked in the creative and hospitality sectors for over 35 years, starting out as a Theatrical Agent, representing household names from stage and screen before moving to France for 16 years where she ran a hotel business in the busy ski resort of Chamonix, France.

After returning to the UK she worked in the Entertainment Department of Carnival UK, programming  artists and ultimately directing a huge event celebrating the 175th anniversary of P&O Cruises as a shoreside and maritime event which featured in the BBC series Sea Cities.  She then joined the BBC and worked in a variety of operational roles in news, strategy and Live Music and Events and playing a leading part in the pan organisation sustainability initiative which led to a role running operations for BAFTA albert, the experts in sustainability in TV and Film.

She currently is the Director of Operations for Murmur, an environmental charity which was created to harness the extraordinary cultural power of music and the visual arts to take on the most existential threat of our time:  climate breakdown.  Outside of work, she lives in the New Forest where she enjoys long dog walks and sea swimming;  she is also a member of a Bournemouth based choir, Lovesoul and volunteers at a couple of local schools giving careers advice to students.

David has over thirty years’ of board-level experience in theatre, television, cinema, and hospitality. His career includes the roles of General Manager with Compass and Talawa theatre companies, Head of Business Affairs for BBC Worldwide, Operations Director at UCI cinemas and Development Director at Hall & Woodhouse.

After this successful business career, and his children having completed their education, he and his wife Helen moved to Bristol to pursue his long-held dream of becoming a professional magician. He now performs as the Great Baldini and is one of the UK’s most prodigious and successful stage Magicians.

He is delighted to use his understanding of leisure and hospitality to support the Lighthouse as a Director.

Tony has over 25 years’ experience operating in senior leadership roles.  He is a highly commercial technologist who has delivered major technology and digital transformation across a range of organisations in the Retail, Media and Publishing sectors.

Tony is currently Chief Operating & Technology Officer at the Copyright Licensing Agency, a Not for Profit that licenses organisations to lawfully use, copy or share text and image-based content owned by authors, publishers and visual artists.  In this role, Tony is responsible for all aspects of technology, operations, data and product development, ensuring the delivery of outstanding customer-centric digital and operational solutions.

Prior to joining CLA, Tony spent 11 years at 20^th Century Fox.  As Senior Vice President, International IT, he oversaw the digital transformation of Fox’s international sales, marketing and distribution businesses.

In his spare time, Tony enjoys sports and the arts.  He has a particular passion for live music and is never happier than when attending gigs for both established and up-and-coming bands.

Greg retired in 2023 after a 41 year career as a solicitor. He trained at a legal aid firm dealing mainly with criminal and matrimonial work. He then moved to the City working at two leading firms dealing mainly with finance, insolvency and corporate disputes.

Having started a family he moved to Pinsents ( now Pinsent Masons) in Birmingham as their first lateral partner hire. He spent 32 years there as a litigation partner dealing with a broad range of disputes.

In 2002 he became Head of Office and held that role for 21 years during which time he was also part the firms Senior Leadership Team.

During his legal career he held a wide range of outside appointments including regional CBI Chair; trustee of Midlands Arts Centre; trustee of The  Birmingham Repertory Theatre; non -executive director of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce for 16 years before becoming Chair in 2022, a position he still holds.

He was appointed as the Under Sheriff of the West Midlands in 2014 and has been reappointed to the role each year since then.

In 2022 he became a non executive director of Pertemps Network Group, the largest privately owned recruitment company in the UK.

Rachel is Director of People and Culture at Bryanston and an experienced senior HR leader with over 25 years’ expertise across the arts, charity, education and commercial sectors. Her career has focused on shaping high-performing, values-led organisations through strategic people leadership, organisational development and culture change.

Rachel began her HR career with Debenhams and IKEA before moving into the arts sector, spending over a decade as HR Manager at Lighthouse in Poole, followed by a further two years as its General Manager. This deep operational and organisational experience within Lighthouse gives her a unique insight into the realities of running a complex multi-venue arts organisation.

Since 2014, Rachel has held a succession of senior leadership roles at the RNLI, most recently as Head of People, where she led major people initiatives, workforce planning, policy development and nationwide operational HR support across a large and diverse volunteer and employee base.

Alongside her current role at Bryanston, where she leads People and Culture strategy, organisational development and the modernisation of HR practice, Rachel is a practising Executive Coach, specialising in leadership development, organisational alignment and culture-focused consultancy. She is a qualified and experienced in supporting leaders to build clarity, confidence and resilience.

Rachel is also Chair of another local charity, reflecting her strong commitment to community engagement and the voluntary sector.

She is delighted to return to Lighthouse in a governance role, contributing her extensive HR, leadership and organisational expertise and her long-standing connection to the organisation to support its continued growth and creative ambition.

Since 2023, Channa Vithana works as Course Leader for BA Architecture at Arts University Bournemouth, having first joined the university in 2007 and previously taught at University of Greenwich for eight years.

Channa’s association with Lighthouse goes back to 2011 with a series of annual architecture exhibitions held in the main gallery featuring architectural student work connected to the local area of Poole. As part of his research and knowledge transfer work, Channa has good connections with local stakeholders, inclusive of registered charities.

Channa is very pleased to be invited to contribute as a trustee to Lighthouse, an important cultural venue that he continues to value since first visiting it in the mid-1980s.

A trained dancer, performer and teacher, Jane was a Founding member of Dorset Dance (now Activate Performing Arts), and Director for 8 years.

In 2006 she completed a Masters in Business Administration, as a means of researching alternative business models and management practices for creative enterprise.

In 2007 she became a partner, and then Director in an accountancy firm with a diverse client base.

Jane is also an occasional finance lecturer at Arts University Bournemouth, in Creative Events Management.