Business Planning

Lilli is an independent consultant and facilitator, working at the intersections of culture, climate and change. She is currently p/t Director of Theatre Green Book, supporting the performing arts sector to transition to net zero, and works with a wide range of cultural and creative organisations and programmes towards a transformative future.

Lilli has extensive experience of developing strategic plans and programmes to support arts and culture to become more inclusive and equitable. She enjoys designing and facilitating sessions that help people find the right ways forward for themselves, and specialises in empowering teams to develop new ideas, have difficult conversations and support each other.

She is passionate about improving the quality of policy making across arts and culture, and developing policy to support transition to circular economies, green jobs and a sustainable future. She’s obsessed with approaches to decision making, and loves to share the secret power of using random selection to revolutionise selection processes, or bring everyone along through consensus decision making.

Current/recent work includes projects with British Fashion Council, Creative UK, West Midlands Combined Authority, and Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Before going freelance in summer 2024, Lilli was Deputy Director of the Creative Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), where she delivered the first four State of the Nations reports, and Director of Jerwood Arts for five years, channelling £10 million of funding to over 1000 early-career artists from all art forms across the UK, as well as designing and delivering leadership programmes such as the Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries.

She started her career in think tanks, before co-founding HighTide and becoming a theatre producer, including for the Almeida Theatre, and working for Arts Council England.

She is Co-Chair of Fuel Theatre, a Trustee of Projekt Europa and a mentor with Arts Emergenc.

Hi, with thirty years' experience in the cultural and creative industries, my passion and focus is in purposeful placemaking, delivering culture-led regeneration with equity and relevance. I am a strategic thinker with an excellent delivery record, and I work with clients and colleagues flexibly and responsively. With an excellent appreciation of strategy and vision I can analyse information in an organised and effective manner, understand complex issues and quickly propose realistic solutions. I have honed my expertise across a wide range of roles, most recently as the founding Director of Creative Estuary, an ambitious £7.7m programme to transform the Thames Estuary through investment in cultural and creative industries. I have worked as a consultant to local government, and to arts and cultural organisations including Turner Contemporary, Creative Folkestone and Culture Trust Luton. As a Senior Manager at Arts Council England I devised and developed national funding programmes including Creative People and Places. I’m highly skilled in leading ambitious projects with multiple stakeholders, building dynamic and durable partnerships, securing partnership investment and with significant bid writing successes. My leadership style is facilitative and enabling, creating strong highly motivated teams. My work has often been situated in the area between private and public sectors and I am highly accomplished at managing the transition between different organisational cultures, structures and sectors, translating needs into action. I’m firmly committed to equity and inclusion, ensuring that my work enables diverse voices and those with lived experience to shape the most relevant solutions.