As Director of Finance at Creative United, Lorna is responsible for the organisation’s financial management and for shaping its long‑term strategic direction from a financial perspective. She works closely with colleagues across the organisation to ensure strong financial stewardship supports the delivery of Creative United’s social mission.

Lorna brings over 20 years’ experience in finance gained across a range of sectors, including retail, marketing, design and construction. Her career has focused on building resilient financial systems, supporting organisational growth and enabling teams to make confident, informed decisions.

Alongside her professional expertise, Lorna is a committed supporter of the arts. She enjoys engaging with a wide variety of art forms from dance and theatre to reading and music — interests that deepen her connection to Creative United’s work and values.

As the Head of Programme Development for Creative United, Lucy is responsible for leading on the strategic planning and development of Creative United’s consumer credit programmes, Own Art and Take it away.

She has worked in the arts and culture sector for more than 20 years. Most recently as Head of Programme at the Arts Marketing Association, overseeing the events, training and resources for its 4,000 plus members. And before that as Head of Marketing at east London arts centre Rich Mix, and in music programming and promoting roles at the Barbican, jazz venue the Vortex, National Portrait Gallery, and with independent promoter The Local. She’s been a Music Advisor with the British Council, where she worked on projects for the London Olympics, and her career in the cultural sector begun with a job at Arts Council England.

Lucy studied film at university. She can't decide whether she loves film or music more. She plays the drums in the band Dog Unit.

Beatriz Alegre Infante is a Portuguese researcher and cultural practitioner. She holds a Bachelor´s degree in Drawing (Fine Arts) from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and a Master’s degree in Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management, and Education from Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Her previous experience includes working under the Creative Europe programme at the European Commission (Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture) in Brussels, as well as with cultural organisations and art residencies from New York, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.

Currently, Beatriz is working towards completing her PhD at Coventry University (Centre for Creative Economies), in partnership with Creative United, London. Her project is grounded in the lived experiences of artists, with the goal of informing and designing new policies that create thriving and sustainable artist livelihoods. This project is supported by the M4C Collaborative Doctoral Award (AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership).

Yaw Owusu is Liverpool-based creative consultant who specialises in the strategic design, development and delivery of music and music culture projects, programmes and initiatives that deliver long-term impact for creatives, brands, organisations and communities. He believes that the empowerment and platforming of under-represented voices, cultures and stories strengthens and bolsters the art media and culture we consume

Yaw has worked with the likes of Google, MTV, BET, MOBO, BBC, Universal Music Group, Levi’s, Liverpool Football Club, The Fader, Bauer, Diageo and more. He has also helped launch the careers of multiple artists and has produced several acclaimed radio, television and documentary projects for the likes of BBC Radio and TV, Spotify and more.

 Yaw is considered a change maker in the UK music industry - working both regionally and nationally to disrupt the imbalance that exists in order to make a more equitable industry for all. This can be seen through his groundbreaking work with projects such as Google’s Union Black, POWER UP, LIMF Academy, Open Sauce, Liverpool Against Racism (first city-wide festival of its kind in the world) and the £6.75m music innovation programme, Music Futures.

For his extraordinary work in the sector, Yaw was awarded an Honoured Friend of Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts by Sir Paul McCartney, a Leader in Music award by the Mayor of Liverpool and a Senior Leader Changemaker Award by B&BAN and BRiM. Yaw is a CLOCK Sector Expert.

Stephen is a creative industries strategist and cultural policy consultant with nearly two decades of experience helping artists, cultural leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers navigate complexity and build meaningful, sustainable change. As a Director and consultant at Nordicity, Stephen has advised national governments, international agencies, and grassroots organisations across the UK and around the world — from London, Iraq, Jamaica and Lebanon, to Uganda, Philippines and Pakistan. His work supports inclusive creative economies, cultural infrastructure, and creative enterprise development in places facing crisis, inequality, or rapid transformation. Stephen blends deep systems thinking with participatory practice. Whether coaching an early-stage creative entrepreneur or designing a national creative economy strategy, he starts with the lived experiences of local people and communities — then builds outward, drawing on global evidence, policy insight, and creative collaboration to shape grounded, implementable solutions and transformational change. A trusted evaluator and facilitator, Stephen uses both numbers and narrative to tell powerful stories — backed by data, driven by human voices. He’s delivered strategic support to the British Council, UNESCO, BFI, Arts Council England, and countless artists, funders, councils, and collectives.

He has supported clients across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to measure impact, develop strategies, and unlock the potential of creative people and places. Stephen is a Clore Social Leadership Fellow and an OECD Summer Academy on Culture and Local Development Fellow. He is co-chair and trustee of Raze Collective, a CoSTAR Network Creative Industries Assessor, and a mentor to emerging leaders across the creative industries.

Diane is an Artist/Creative Partner and Consultant supporting talent across the Arts, Music, Film and Entertainment industry. She provides one-to-one consultancy underpinned with a coaching philosophy. Clients include music artists, talent managers, entrepreneurs and freelancers working in all areas of the arts and creative world.

In a career spanning A & R, Artist, Producer and Studio Management, Diane’s managed the international careers of numerous music artists, songwriters, performers and record producers. She's secured partnerships with Major and Independent record and publishing companies and run self-releasing artist businesses.

Camille is passionate about supporting entrepreneurs with their mental health, so that they can focus on what they do best: making great ideas happen.

She’s spent all of her working life in entrepreneurship. After 2 years in a social enterprise start-up in Oxford, Camille joined Imperial’s Enterprise Lab in 2017.

Until September 2024 she ran their start-up development programmes, the Venture Catalyst Challenge and WE Innovate, supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs in the process. What she noticed along the way were the intense psychological demands of entrepreneurship. It’s what led her to train as a Co-active coach and move on to coaching founders full-time.

As a coach, Camille support founders and entrepreneurs to:
• develop new patterns of thought and action when the current ones aren’t serving them;
• develop mental tools and resources for resilience;
• create space and time for themselves;
• connect to their purpose; - reflect and process thoughts and feelings in a neutral space.

She also design and deliver workshops teaching entrepreneurial skills for those at the early stages of the process.

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 bookkeeper of Creative United Fiona is responsible for making sure the financial management of the organisation runs smoothly and accurately and to support the Director of Finance and Budget Holders with their financial, accounting and forecasting needs. 

Having qualified as a chartered accountant some years ago, she has worked in mainly media and creative industries for most of my career. Outside of work she has always enjoyed going to gigs, the theatre and art galleries as well as travelling (and bringing up my family). She has also been practicing yoga regularly for 30 years and qualified as a yoga teacher in 2009 when living in Hong Kong. Fiona's yoga practice and teaching influences her approach to living and has helped her through an extremely difficult family trauma.  

As the Membership Development Manager at Creative United Ben manages the onboarding, training, and ongoing support for members of the Own Art and Take it away schemes. As part of the Consumer Credit team, he is the first point of contact for any questions related to these schemes.

Ben comes from an acting background, having graduated with a First in Theatre Studies from The University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and later earning an MA in Classical Acting from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating with Distinction. Over the years, he has worked as a professional actor across the UK and Europe, performing at venues such as The Arcola and the Globe Theatre. A highlight of his career was touring with Hamlet in the leading role, and his final professional acting project was playing Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.

Outside of Creative United, Ben continues to perform regularly, writing and playing original music as part of his folk-rock duo, Weaver Line.