Margaret Pinder studied English and Modern Languages at King’s College, Cambridge where she was heavily involved in the music scene playing co-principal double bass in the university music society’s first orchestra. She went on to qualify as a solicitor, practising international shipping law in the City and then moving to the United States where she specialised in international corporate law on Wall Street before joining the faculty of Harvard University.

Returning to the UK she worked as a legal consultant before taking on the role of Head of Market Intelligence for a major international law firm. In 2017 she was selected to join the CBI’s Executive Leadership Programme. She now works as a music and project manager for Polyphony Arts, a classical music agency based in Newcastle. Margaret also serves as Chair of the Hull Philharmonic Society and is board member and trustee for Hull Chamber Music. 

Gillian Firth had a successful 20 year career in the television industry as a researcher, then producer working on a broad range of regional and network programmes, before reinventing herself as a fundraiser in the voluntary and cultural sector.

She led the fundraising campaigns on three major capital theatre developments in Newcastle and Glasgow, as well as raising project and revenue grants for many of the major cultural organisations in the city. She has served on a number of boards and is currently a director of the Hexham Book Festival as well as belonging to the Moving Parts Arts Board.

Ziyad Georgis had a successful 28-year career in Investment Banking as a COO, strategist and programme manager, and as a Management Consultant specialising in change management, having begun his career as a lecturer in computing. He studied Pure Mathematics as an undergraduate and researched infinite infinities as a postgrad as well as becoming the Arts Editor of the university newspaper. He specialised in all forms of contemporary music, film and theatre, and began writing for the NME and Melody Maker, the leading UK music weeklies at the time. Recently he has also been advising various arts organisations on generating a programme of work to help bolster their finances.

Alison McGowan has an extensive puppetry career spanning over 20 years working in theatre, film and television as well as in education and community settings. Alison has worked in the West End of London as a puppeteer for Improbable Theatre (2001); for CBeebies as ‘Tamba’ in Tikkabilla (2002-2003) and most recently as a puppeteer on ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ for Lucasfilm (2018); ‘Solo’ for Lucasfilm (2017) and ‘The Dark Crystal’ for Netflix (2018). 

Alison is a director and founder of PuppetShip CIC, an organisation which creates puppetry performances and workshops across the North East and nationally. As a puppetry tutor and workshop facilitator Alison has worked at the University of Northumbria; the Royal Centre School of Speech and Drama; the National Student Drama Festival and The Royal College of Art. As a child psychotherapist, Alison currently works part-time in a primary school setting using puppetry in therapy, and for the Northern Guild of Psychotherapy in Jesmond.

Eleanor Woolstencroft joined Moving Parts Arts at 18, with years of experience in political campaigning and the social justice movement. Through these experiences, she was inspired by the transformative potential of the arts. As the youngest person to graduate the Jo Cox Women in Leadership program, Eleanor has set her sights on making a difference, uniting local, national and international communities through the power of art.