About Creative United

Susie Warran-Smith CBE DL is an experienced entrepreneur, non-executive director and enterprise champion with a strong track record of supporting business growth and innovation across the private, public and charitable sectors. She founded and scaled her own company independently, later selling it to Ernst & Young in 2020. Since then, Susie has held a range of senior governance roles including on the main board of HMRC, as an audit and risk non-executive at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government and the British Library, contributing strategic insight, risk and financial oversight.

She is passionate about supporting women in business and enabling inclusive access to entrepreneurship and the creative economy. Susie is an art school graduate and has a long-standing interest in visual arts and a background in mentoring small businesses, She brings a unique blend of commercial expertise and cultural engagement to her board roles. She was awarded a CBE for services to enterprise, serves as a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and is the author of Swimming On My Own, which reflects on her journey as a founder and advocate for entrepreneurial resilience.

As Chief Executive, Mary-Alice is responsible for the strategic leadership and management of the organisation. This involves a wide range of duties including the exploration of new business opportunities, ensuring our social objectives remain central to the design and delivery of all our programmes and services.

Mary-Alice was instrumental in the establishment of Creative United in 2012 as a spin out from Arts Council England. Since then, she has successfully led the growth and development of the business, working closely with the Board and Staff team, and in collaboration with a wide range of partners across the public, private and higher education sectors.

Having studied at Falmouth School of Art and with a degree in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute, her background and professional expertise is firmly rooted in the visual arts. However, she is also passionate about music and the performing arts. In addition to her work at Creative United, she is involved in a voluntary capacity on the Board of a number of other arts organisations including New Contemporaries and the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust.

Suzanne joined the Board of Creative United in January 2019 because she is passionate about arts and culture; making sure that everyone in society has equity of experience and opportunity.   Creative United’s vision and values mirror her own.

She has held a number senior, leadership and governance roles over her career and she regularly volunteers for Breast Cancer Now and MacMillan Cancer.  For 25 years, she led Attitude is Everything, a charitable organisation which connects disabled people with the music and live event industries to improve access together.

She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Honours in June 2013 for services to music, arts and disabled people, she was conferred an Honorary Fellowship by Falmouth University in July 2022, and she has won other awards for her work.

Now she is a creative consultant, supporting disability diversity in arts and culture, climate sustainability and cancer patient advocacy.  As a disabled, working-class woman who lives with a cancer diagnosis, she proves that lived experience is a powerful tool for systemic change.

Image Credit: Breast Cancer Now 

Hannah is strategic leader, and cultural producer, working at the intersection of inclusion, art and community within the public and private sectors. She has over 20 years’ experience in the arts, media and social business sectors. With a love for all things creative, her experience spans music, theatre, digital media, contemporary visual arts and heritage.

She is currently the CEO of InCommon, a charity connecting groups of young people with their older neighbours so they can share experiences, celebrate differences and learn from one another. Previously, as the Head of Social Entrepreneur Support at UnLtd, where she managed a complex portfolio of awards by finding, funding and supporting social entrepreneurs from the most marginalised communities with solutions to change society for the better. She is also Chair of the Board of Trustees for the West Yorkshire Print Workshop.

Sanaz Amidi is a highly accomplished leader in the arts, and is known for her dedication to working with disadvantaged communities, and uses the arts as a means of bringing positive change to the lives of people facing challenging circumstances. Sanaz was a member of the British Council's Creative Hubs Advisory Board for the UK, and has worked on projects across Europe, from Sweden to Armenia.

In her own right, Sanaz is a figurative painter with a degree in Fine Arts from London's Central St Martins and Camberwell College of Art (now University of The Arts), as well as a trained accountant and an executive coach. She holds a Global Executive MBA from the IESE Business School and a Diploma in Strategy in Not for Profit Management from Harvard Business School. These multifaceted qualifications have underpinned a highly successful career in the creative industries, where she ran Rosetta Arts (2007-2013), transforming it from a small educational charity to an acclaimed exemplar of effective socio-economic regeneration through the arts, working with some of the most disadvantaged multi-ethnic communities in England.

She currently has an international consultancy practice working in the creative economy, is an executive coach and a professional board member supporting English National Ballet as a NED and Trustee, Chair of Creative Newham, Special Advisor to the Contemporary Visual Arts London, and has been an advisor for the UK Government, especially on the essential value of arts education, and is a frequent speaker at international conferences on the creative industries.

Ezra Konvitz is a strategy consultant and entrepreneur, currently serving as a Director at Founders Intelligence (originally a part of Founders Forum, Ezra was on the team that sold it to Accenture). He advises major corporates and non-profit organisations on strategy, innovation and new venture creation, and leads their Accelerator practice, developing partnerships between startups and global organisations including Amazon, Diageo, and the LEGO Foundation.

He began his career at Bain & Company before joining the Serpentine Gallery as Head of Strategy, where he worked closely with then-Director Julia Peyton-Jones during its landmark Zaha Hadid expansion. During this period, he led significant capital fundraising as the Gallery doubled in size and established itself as a leading model for public–private partnership.

In 2011, he co-founded ArtStack, a pioneering social discovery and commerce platform for art, which grew into the world’s largest user-generated art platform and partnered with leading institutions including Christie’s, Magnum Photos, and Taschen.

He is a regular speaker at industry events and has served on the Young Patrons Boards of the Whitechapel Gallery and BFAMI. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge, the Courtauld Institute of Art, and The City Law School.

Emrys Green is an experienced director and consultant working across digital transformation, arts leadership, and social impact. He leads a digital and engagement agency, Cloud Artisans, dedicated to helping organisations and creative enterprises become more inclusive, accessible, and sustainable. His experience blends commercial acumen and cultural engagement, which empowers creatives to broaden their audiences, reduce barriers to participation, and increase their economic and social impact.

Alongside his work in the digital sector, Emrys has roots in cultural education and youth engagement. Emrys was a national project manager for Arts Award before co-founding Voice, a charity championing youth voice and leadership. Emrys has produced a wide range of events, touring productions and festivals over the past 20 years, engaging a variety of audiences and participants.

Emrys' governance experience includes being Chair of the global professional body, The Institute of Leadership, on the board of a social housing association, Tuntum, and formerly a Vice-Chair of an Arts Council England Bridge organisation, The Mighty Creatives. He holds an Executive MBA from Nottingham Business School and Fellowships of The Institute of Leadership, the Institute of Directors, and the Chartered Management Institute. He is a life fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Nick is a Professor of Economic Geography, Pro-Vice Chancellor Cultural and Creative Economy and Executive Director of the recent Research Centre for Creative Economies at Coventry University. He joined the Board of Creative United on its formation and is Editor-in-Chief of European Urban and Regional Studies: Sage Journals. Nick returned to academe with Coventry University; previously he was Consulting Director, Economic Development and Economic Policy at international policy and evaluation house ICF GHK and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University.

Nick has long run, substantial and wide-ranging experience of thought leadership and the direction and management of research and consultancy projects on economic and social development. Current projects include: Createch Frontiers, CWX - Coventry and Warwickshire Exchange, Mind the Understanding Gap: The Value of Creative Freelancers – Creative United and HOME | Creative Accounting. From 2019 – 2023 Nick led Coventry University’s Evaluating Coventry UK City of Culture 2021.