The Royal Opera House has appointed a woman as Chairman for the first time and by golly! she talks about ballet in the appointment interview below:
<img src="http://is.lse.ac.uk/Leo/images/JudithMayhew.jpg" alt="" />
<small>Judith Mayhew from a short
CV/resume for a conference in London</small>
Royal Opera picks dame By Maev Kennedy for The Guardian
Barrister Judith Mayhew was yesterday announced as chairwoman at Covent Garden, unanimously appointed by the governors as the first ever woman to head the Royal Opera House board.
Her proven track record in education and community arts projects, and in using her City contacts for fundraising, were factors impressing the board.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," she said. "When a little girl learning ballet in New Zealand, I used to dream of dancing on the stage of Covent Garden. I have to say it didn't occur to me to dream of being chair of the board."
She succeeds Sir Colin Southgate, who five years ago pronounced that "I don't want to sit next to somebody in a singlet, a pair of shorts, and a smelly pair of trainers" - a jibe at the government's access to arts policy and Covent Garden's desperation not to be seen as the home of music to rattle your diamonds to.
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First female boss for Opera House The Royal Opera House is trying to widen its audience. From the BBC website.
The Royal Opera House has announced the appointment of its first female chairman.
Dame Judith Mayhew, who was elected on Tuesday, will join the board of directors on 1 March and take over the chairmanship from Sir Colin Southgate at the end of the current season in August.
Born and educated in New Zealand, Dame Judith is a barrister and solicitor and currently works as a special adviser to London mayor Ken Livingstone.
"I have had a fantastic career in both the public and private sector and I am now looking forward to focusing my energies in a new direction with one of my favourite cultural institutions," said Dame Judith.
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Judith Mayhew Interview from 2001 in "Just People" with the new Chair of the ROH
For those travelling halfway round the world to find fame and fortune in the City of London, Judith Mayhew is something of a patron saint. Having upped and left her provincial New Zealand home at 22, with nothing more than a suitcase, a box of books and a box of records, she proved that the streets of the City really are paved with gold; and while she is not (as yet) Mayor of London, she is his trusty sidekick and unofficial chief executive of the City of London.
Having grown up in Dunedin, a small University town, Mayhew is now overseeing the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people and a square mile of land producing approx £30bn a year. As Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee for the Corporation of London, the 52 year-old represents the financial industry's interests to both the UK and the European governments, as well as working to develop economic development and regeneration in the surrounding boroughs. The social aspect is as important to her as the complex world of financial regulation; 'You've got the richest district in the world surrounded by some of the poorest districts in the UK, and that's unacceptable,' says Mayhew.
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