the hub team

Culturally curious thinkers and doers. Champions of the new and the interesting. Known for our entrepreneurialism, integrity and generosity. We’re in it to make a difference.

Look inside the hub team and you’ll find a group of highly skilled and respected, sector ‘savvy’, professionals who love working with other culturally curious people. We’re all active players in our specialist fields, bringing to the hub a collective, up-to-the minute knowledge and understanding of the live, recorded, broadcast and digital music worlds. We rank in our number artists, managers, fundraisers, marketers, digital and creative producers and promoters, and collectively we’ve worked in and for organisations of every shape and size – from small start ups to major industry players, national funding bodies, non-government organisations and everything in between – and for ourselves.

We’re citizens of the commercial and subsidised world, multi-lingual explorers on a mission to inspire, develop and share new thinking and practice. It’s this combination of specialist skills and knowledge and wide-ranging experience, coupled with a real desire to make a difference to the cultural sector we’ve grown up in, that characterises the hub team.

Julia Payne

Chief Executive [and Co-founder]

Julia was one of the hub’s founding directors back in 2002 and continues to lead the organisation now that it’s into its second decade.Read More

Danielle Battigelli

Associate

Danielle brings to the hub specialist expertise in charity law and intellectual property, as well as substantial experience ...Read more

Jenny Harris

Senior Associate and Producer

Jenny’s programming, commissioning, fundraising and marketing experience, plus her background as an artist, mean she’s right ...Read more

Remi Harris

Associate

Remi shows creatives, arts organisations and entrepreneurs how to write about what they do in a way that makes funders want ...Read more

John Hart

Associate

John Hart has racked up over 20 years of experience within the music industry. He is a man who has seen it, been it, and got ...Read more

Matthew Linley

Associate and Producer

Matthew is one of the producers behind our Phrased & Confused commissions, tours and festivals, as well as other live ...Read more

Fiona Mason

Associate

Fiona is an arts consultant, fundraiser and mentor with 25 years sector experience across art forms who has been helping ...Read more

Ruth Melville

Senior Associate

  Ruth has 20 years of qualitative and quantitative research experience, and specialises in embedded research design, impact ...Read more

Jason Phipps

Associate

Jason Phipps is a seasoned BBC Sony Gold winning radio/online producer now working in the areas of radio/podcast production, ...Read more

Nikki Sheppard

Associate

Nikki Shepperd spent over ten years in the private sector working for FTSE 100 companies (BT, O2) and several start ups ...Read more

Stuart Silver

Associate Producer

Stuart Silver is a BAFTA nominated, Perrier Award Winning, writer / performer / Director / Tutor working across theatre and ...Read more

Wendy Smithers

Senior Associate [and Co-founder]

Wendy was one of the hub’s founding directors in 2002, bringing to the team a passion for helping artists and arts ...Read more

Andi Studer

Associate

Now one of our associates, with a specialism in digital and live production, Andi started at the hub many years ago as an ...Read more