Board of Trustees

Lisa Opie (Chair)

Lisa Opie is Managing Director of Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft Leamington studios. She was formerly Managing Director of UK Production, BBC Studios, responsible for delivering BBC Studios Productions' business plan. Before this, she was Managing Director of UK Factual, leading the factual teams across six business units as well as BBC Studios Digital. Together they produce more than 1,000 hours of thought-provoking, inspiring content across a broad range of genres and subjects, from established strands such as Horizon, Watchdog and Countryfile, to the award-winning Big Blue Live, Murdered by my Boyfriend and Life and Death Row. Lisa works with the creative leads, production management and business teams to enable BBC Studios to continue to deliver and grow its world-class content. Lisa also joined the BBC Studios executive committee in April 2018 where develops and implements the business strategy within factual. Before joining the BBC in 2013, initially as Controller of Business for Factual and Daytime, Lisa was Managing Director of Two Four Digital, where she helped create digital channels and content for brands, broadcasters and businesses keen to engage audiences on multiple platforms. Prior to that, Lisa was Managing Director of Content at Channel Five and Managing Director of Flextech Television (once a partner with the BBC in UKTV).  Previously Lisa worked at the satellite TV company BSB and presented and researched radio programmes for BBC Radio Wales. She began her career in the theatre, having attended the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Indiana University Theatre School.

She says: "To ensure the health of the UK’s screen industries, it is vital that we attract and retain talent who best reflect the breadth of the audiences we serve and ScreenSkills offers advice, support and quality, accessible training to make sure that happens."

Kate Lyndon (Vice Chair)

Kate is the finance director for Britbox, a dynamic start-up subscription VOD service backed by ITV and the BBC, with operations in the US, Canada and soon in the UK. Prior to taking on this role, Kate worked across multiple areas at ITV, including group finance as group chief accountant managing external reporting and technical matters, as Head of Financial, Planning and Analysis for the broadcast division, as financial controller for the ITV Hub and most recently as finance director for the transmission and multiples business, SDN. Kate is also involved with the EY Foundation, where she has been chair of the impact and influence committee and most recently a strategic advisor. Kate is chair of the ScreenSkills finance and audit committee.

Philippa Childs

Philippa Childs is the first woman to hold the role of Head of Bectu, the UK’s media and entertainment union.

Childs oversees Bectu’s five divisions: BBC; London Production Division; Regional Production Division; Independent Broadcasting, and Arts and Entertainment – championing the rights of more than 30,000 staff and freelance workers across numerous creative companies. Additionally, the BT and Digital divisions of Prospect also fall under Child’s remit.

As the largest union at the BBC and with a strong presence in many of the UK’s leading theatres, arts centres and independent broadcasting and production companies, Bectu is uniquely placed to secure workplace fairness and equality on behalf of its members.

Childs worked in the civil service throughout the 1980s and started her union career as a negotiations officer with the National Union of Civil and Public Servants (now PCS) in 1989.

She was seconded to the TUC National Education Centre between 1994 and 1996, returning to PCS from 1996 to 2000.

Childs joined EMA, now part of Bectu’s parent union Prospect, in 2000.

Bella Lambourne

Bella Lambourne originally joined documentary producer Hawkshead as general manager in 1993 and after the group expanded to become Broadcast Communications took responsibility as UK Group Head of Human Resources in 1997. Bella was promoted to Human Resources Director for Endemol UK in 2002 and also oversees the administrative and operational functions of the group. In addition to her Endemol UK role, Bella was promoted to Global Head of Human Resources at Endemol Group in March 2011, focussing on people and talent management for the 25 Endemol Shine UK companies. She currently works as HR and Operations Director at Banijay UK. Bella is passionate about improving diversity and talent development both on and off screen. Bella is a member of the Unscripted TV Skills Fund. She also sits on the Pact diversity committee and the CDN steering group.

Anna Mallett

Anna Mallett joined Netflix in April 2021 as Vice President, Physical Production, supporting teams across the EMEA/UK and APAC regions.

Prior to joining Netflix, Anna was CEO of ITN, overseeing one of the largest independent television production companies in the UK. ITN is the producer of the award-winning live network news programming for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and also a market leader in factual programme-making, sports production, advertising production and business-to-business content. 

Previously, Anna was Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director, Production of BBC Studios, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. As MD, Anna was responsible for the business and operational leadership of all in-house production areas within BBC Studios, and for all aspects of international production and formats. Anna was previously the programme director in the creation of BBC Studios Production as a commercial business. Other roles at the BBC included CEO of BBC Studios and Post Production Ltd (now BBC Studioworks) and Controller of Business Strategy, responsible for the BBC's overall commercial strategy. Before joining the BBC, Anna worked for seven years at The Boston Consulting Group in London, focusing on media and retail. She has an MBA from Harvard and a DPhil from Oxford. 

Helen Northrop

Helen is Director of Commercial Affairs, Content at Sky. Helen qualified from Leeds University as a solicitor in 1992 and spent 10 years at Virgin Records and EMI as an in-house lawyer before starting her television career in 2009, heading up the legal and business affairs team for BBC Knowledge.

In 2012 Helen joined Sky in her first commercial role, where she oversees deals for the development, production and financing of Sky's original unscripted output. Working across a broad range of genres, Helen has created deals with producers, distributors, broadcasters and financiers for key titles in entertainment (A League of Their Own), kids TV  (The Brilliant World of Tom Gates), documentaries (Bruno vs Tyson), nature (Shark with Steve Backshall) and arts (Portrait Artist of the Year).

Mel Sullivan

Mel joined Framestore in 1998, after a successful career in corporate banking, finance and brokerage. She became a Board DIrector in 2006 and served as Framestore’s Chief Operating Officer from 2003 until 2022, when she became the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.

She has been pivotal to Framestore’s growth, development and evolution, helping guide and grow the company from a London-based team of 150 to an Oscar, Emmy and BAFTA-winning powerhouse with a network of studios spanning eight offices, four continents and some 3,000 artists, producers and technologists.

Sachin Dosani

Sachin Dosani is skilled in commercial strategy, business transformation, branded content and advertising. He is the COO and co-founder of Wonderhood Studios and brings a deep understanding of the commercial dynamics of TV production and advertising. Previously he was Managing Director and co-founder of ACF Investment Bank, and Associate Director Mergers and Acquisitions at Grant Thornton.

Sarah Monteith

Sarah Monteith has expertise in TV and film production, brand management and marketing. Her roles include Chief Executive at Baby Cow Productions, where she was Executive Producer of drama and comedy and Chief Marketing Officer at BBC Studios, where she looked after the BBC’s global franchises. She has had charity and fundraising experience as Director of Marketing & Fundraising at BBC Children In Need and lives between London and Warwickshire.

Stephen O’Donnell

Stephen O’Donnell is based in Scotland and has spent his career leading transformational change across the media, technology, and entertainment sectors. He spent 20 years at STV, most recently as Director of Programme Strategy and Marketing. He is a Member of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Scotland and a past Chair of the Royal Television Society Scotland.

Alex Pumfrey

Alex Pumfrey brings experience in partnerships and the charitable sector. She is currently Director of Strategic Partnerships at ITV where she spearheads ITV’s expansion into major new partnerships which can extend ITV’s reach, including those with YouTube and Disney.