Young Vic Welcomes Two New Board Members
Varun Chandra and Farah Ramzan Golant join as Trustees
Glenn Earle, Chair of the Board, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director and Despina Tsatsas, Executive Director, today announce the appointment of Varun Chandra and Farah Ramzan Golant CBE as Trustees of the Young Vic board.
Glenn Earle, Chair of the Young Vic Board, said: “I am delighted today to welcome Farah and Varun to our board. They are established leaders in their own fields and I know that our board and our theatre will benefit hugely from their intellect, passion and creativity. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our recently retired Trustees for their many years of invaluable service and unwavering support to the Young Vic. They will forever remain dear friends of this theatre”.
Varun Chandra, Managing Partner of Hakluyt, said “Of all the theatre I’ve watched over the years, it is at the Young Vic that I’ve seen the most daring, the most provocative, and the most thought-provoking performances. I’m therefore delighted to be joining the board of this fantastic institution, one of the most brilliant and innovative of its kind in the world. The breadth of the Young Vic’s work and impact is extraordinary, and its success in identifying, enabling and promoting emerging talent is particularly noteworthy. It will be an honour to play a role in furthering this mission, and I’m greatly looking forward to working with Kwame, Despina and the other members of their outstanding team.”
Farah Ramzan Golant, Chief Executive Officer of kyu EMEA, said “It is an exciting time to join the Young Vic as Kwame and the team unleash the visceral power of theatre anew. I am inspired by their vision to curate experiences for audiences which we are all longing to share. It is a privilege to be a part of this movement that is so uniquely Young Vic in its voice and profound cultural effect.”
About Varun Chandra
Varun is the Managing Partner of Hakluyt, which helps leaders of the world’s largest companies and investment firms take better decisions, by advising them on the opportunities and risks facing their businesses. Prior to Hakluyt, he worked in investment and merchant banking.
Trained at Lehman Brothers, he went on to help build a regulated advisory firm for former Prime Minister Tony Blair, where he was responsible for transactions typically involving sovereign wealth and emerging markets businesses.
He has also co-founded a merchant bank with a private family investment company; advised a UK foreign secretary on business and economic issues; and invested in a number of early-stage companies.
Varun is a trustee of the Royal Academy Trust and the MCC Foundation, and sits on the boards of Sesame Workshop and IP Group, Inc.
He grew up in the north east of England, and now lives in London with his young family.
About Farah Ramzan Golant CBE
Farah is the Chief Executive Officer of kyu EMEA. She has worked for three decades in the global creative and media industries, with an unfaltering belief in the power of creativity to tackle the world’s toughest problems. Farah has led commercial companies of scale as well as a not-for-profit enterprise of significance. Her quest at kyu, since joining in 2018, is to enable purpose-led growth of a creative Collective committed to propelling the economy and society forwards. Farah also serve on the boards of kyu’s Member Companies; ATÖLYE, based in Istanbul, Godfrey Dadich Partners, based in San Francisco and Public Digital, based in London.
From 2015 to 2018, Farah was seconded by Nike Inc. to be the CEO of Girl Effect, a creative non-profit building youth brands and mobile platforms to empower girls to change their lives. Previously, Farah was Chief Executive of All3Media, the UK’s biggest independent television content production group. Prior to that, Farah had a 22-year career at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, the UK’s leading advertising group, rising through the ranks to become Chief Executive and a member of the BBDO worldwide board in NYC. Farah served on the British Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group 2013 – 2015 and has served as a Business Ambassador for the Creative Industries of Britain. Farah currently serves as a Trustee of Sadler’s Wells dance company and Prince’s Trust International.
In 2011, Farah was awarded a CBE, and was named Business Woman of the Year in 2010 Asian Women of Achievement Awards. She graduated with a joint honours’ degree from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and has completed the Omnicom Advanced Management Programme at Babson College.
The current Young Vic board members are:
Varun Chandra
Nicky Dunn OBE
Glenn Earle (Chair)
Robert Easton
Farah Ramzan Golant CBE
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith MBE
Ali Hossaini
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE
Ebele Okobi
Abigail Sewell
Fiona Shaw
Sita Thomas
Steve Tompkins MBE
Anna Williams