John Newbigin is a free-lance strategy consultant and cultural entrepreneur. Before that, he was Head of Corporate Relations for Channel 4 Television and prior to that, special Advisor to the Rt Hon Chris Smith, MP, developing the new Labour approach to the creative industries. Previous jobs include working for David Puttnam’s film company Enigma and as a Policy Advisor to Neil Kinnock

Before that he worked variously as a youth worker and as a journalist, writer, cartoonist and manager of a training workshop specialising in furniture making

He is, amongst other things, Chairman of Culture 24 (previously the 24 Hour Museum), a Trustee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, a Board member of Theatre Royal Stratford East and First Light Movies Ltd. He is a Board member of BECTA, CIDA London, (the East London Creative Industries Development Agency) and a Trustee of C4’s Big Art Project