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Judges

Meet our expert, industry leading Judges for the 2022 Digital Culture Awards. They come from the worlds of culture and tech, all with decades of expertise in their chosen fields. Read on to find out more and be inspired! And if you are interested in being a judge for 2023 please get in touch.

Tom Burton - Head of Interactive, BBC Studios
Tom is a multi-award-winning Interactive Director and Creative Exec. He’s worked for the past 20+ years at the intersection between technology and content in creative production, strategy and leadership whilst specialising in innovation. He has worked across the creative industries in agencies, film & tv, theatre, cultural organisations, and with individual artists. He’s a BIMA100 Challenger and New Thinker, on the immersive council at BIMA, advises BAFTA on the immersive industry, founded a theatre and tech collective and mentors and speaks when people ask him.
Hilary Carty CCMI - Executive Director, Clore Leadership
Hilary Carty is the Executive Director at Clore Leadership. Prior to this, she worked as a consultant, facilitator and coach specialising in leadership development, management and organisational change. Rooted within the arts and cultural industries, Hilary drew on her creative acumen and experience to co-create bespoke interventions for an eclectic range of sectors and businesses. Hilary has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from three UK universities in recognition of her contribution to the arts, culture and heritage. She is a Governor of the Royal Ballet.
Rishi Coupland - Head of Research and Insight, BFI
Rishi Coupland is a creative industries strategist and leader with over fifteen years experience in delivering research and strategic programmes, spanning both Third Sector and Commercial enterprise. He is currently Head of Research and Insight at the BFI, where he leads the Research and Statistics Unit. Prior to this, he held the roles of Head of Data Intelligence at the National Theatre, where he launched and lead the sector flagship Data Studio, Head of Audience Strategy (National Theatre), Marketing Services Manager (Southbank Centre), and Creative Producer (Buzz-erk Productions). Rishi began his career as a technologist and engineer with multinational companies including British Airways and Kimberly-Clark, in locations across the UK and Europe. In 2017 Rishi was awarded a Clore Fellowship, and is currently a board member of the London Arts and Health Forum.

Liam Darbon - Head of Omnichannel Trading, Tate
Joining Tate 2 years ago, Liam is Head of Omnichannel Trading and leads on the commercial strategy spanning Tate Gallery and Tate Enterprises. He is responsible for developing world class, customer-centric propositions across: Ticketing, Membership Services, Retail, Commercial Systems, Experiences, Financial Operations, Customer Contact and their award-winning eCommerce site, all in support of Tate’s mission. Liam also recently joined the board of trustees at Birmingham Museums Trust and has served as a Non Executive Director of their Trading Company since 2016. Prior to Tate, Liam held senior commercial leadership positions at John Lewis and has also worked for American Express and the marketing agency Syncredible.

Sarah Fortescue - Head of Distribution, The Space
Sarah specialises in distribution, working within the broadcast and digital sectors. She is Head of Distribution at The Space. Her projects have featured on the BBC, Channel 4, Sky Arts, Nowness and The Guardian. Sarah has worked with organisations on a range of campaigns, including cinema distribution and DVD creation, to pay-per-view, SVOD and AVOD distribution. She has also served as Executive Producer on a range of interactive projects, which have been nominated for a number of international awards, including a Webby.
Katz Kiely - CEO, Beep
Katz Kiely is an award-winning pioneer, innovator, culture architect, and social entrepreneur. Over a 20 year career, she has supported some of the world's biggest companies through lasting change. She designed the first open innovation platform for HP, rearchitected the way a UN agency does business, and designed a city-scale behaviour change platform with Intel. She is now CEO of beep: a platform that unlocks the problem-solving potential of people. She believes doing good is good business, is Chair of Trustees for Frontline. Live and a proud ambassador of the Burning Man Project. She is on a mission to revolutionise the world of work by shifting perceptions of what good leadership looks like .. and by sharing stories to inspire, and tools to empower. Her weekly podcast https://www.katzkiely.com/podcast collects authentic stories from senior leaders from corporates and governments to prove imaginal leadership gets better results.

Kanya King CBE - Founder and CEO, MOBO Group
An internationally renowned entrepreneur, Kanya King has – through her role as CEO, founder and visionary of the iconic MOBO platform – displayed the drive and ambition needed to help take urban music from the margins of British popular culture to the heart of mainstream culture, in the UK and around the world. Since its inception in 1996, Kanya has built MOBO into a globally respected brand and with her guidance, MOBO has established itself as a champion of diversity, inclusion and recognition for talent within music, culture, arts, fashion, media and larger society as a whole. In 2018 Kanya was presented with both a CBE for services to music and culture and the Legacy Award at the inaugural Investing in Diversity Awards, and this year she was awarded the Music Week Strat Award, one of the biggest music industry accolades. Constantly innovating, MOBO recently launched MOBOLISE, a career and networking platform backed by Accenture, born to support creative talent and establish a level playing field for young black talent in the workplace.
Adam Koszary - Head of Digital, The Audience Agency
Adam has nearly ten years experience working in digital content and strategy in roles at Royal Academy of Arts, Tesla, Bodleian Libraries, Reading Museum and The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL). His most famous campaign was the ‘Absolute Unit’ viral moment, which catapulted The MERL to global fame on Twitter. He has also led on digital transformation projects, run training sessions for a variety of organisations and regularly contributes to journals and conferences. Adam is currently Head of Digital at The Audience Agency, and he is also expecting his first ever puppy in December and won’t stop telling people about it.

Andrew Miller MBE - Cultural Consultant, Broadcaster and Disability Champion
Andrew is a cultural consultant, broadcaster and an influential champion of disabled people. He belongs to the first generation of disabled presenters of British television, becoming a documentary film-maker and later, the first wheelchair-user to run a major UK arts venue. He is a National Council member of Arts Council England, a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a trustee of Welsh National Opera and BAFTA. Andrew previously served on the boards of The Arts Council of Wales and digital arts agency The Space. He also chairs the British Film Institute Disability Screen Advisory Group. In 2020 Andrew co-founded the UK Disability Arts Alliance, #WeShallNotBeRemoved, co-authored the Seven Inclusive Principles for cultural recovery and became chair of Arts Council England's Disability Advisory Group. As the UK Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts & Culture, Andrew established the role as a powerful campaigning platform for greater inclusion across the arts, museums and film. Now a prolific writer and public speaker, his consultancy supports major new cultural infrastructure such as the University of Oxford Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and Coventry City of Culture. His pioneering career has been recognised by the National Diversity Awards, The Shaw Trust Disability Power 100, The Stage 100 and in the 2021 New Year Honours.
Derek Richards - Head of Broadcast & Digital, the Roundhouse
In 1991 Derek Richards co-founded Artec, the UK’s first media lab and centre for learning digital creation. He has since won 11 awards for his digital and interactive work including installations for London’s Science Museum and for gallery exhibition as well as online. Leading his own company HyperJAM (1997 – 2006), Derek pioneered applications of digital media and technologies to live events – connecting venues, artists and audiences around the world for real time collaborative performances and producing interactive projections and soundscapes for theatre, music, dance and events. Between 2009 and 2014 Derek ran the multi-BAFTA award winning youth media production company Hi8us South. He is currently Head of Broadcast & Digital at Roundhouse and lectures in Digital Design & Production at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Most recently (2020 – 2021), Derek served as “Broadcast Producer” on Rambert’s series of ground-breaking and award winning bespoke live streamed performances.

Arts Council England's Digital Culture Network, Innovation and Creative Media teams
We’d also like to thank our expert internal judges from the Digital Culture Network and Arts Council’s Innovation team, including Tiina Hill, Ben Lane, Carl Stevens, Paul Glinkowski, Ash Egan and Owen Hopkin, Tech Champions Peggy Naumann, Roberta Beattie, Haydn Corrodus, Dean Shaw, James Akers, Hansel McKoy and Phil Lofthouse, and Creative Media Relationship Managers Laura McFarlane, Peter Davison, Rajita Shah and Vanessa Scully.