Judging panel 2008

Sue MacGregor CBE, Chair
Sue MacGregor joined the BBC first as a producer, then as a reporter on The World at One. For 15 years she presented Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 before moving to The Today Programme.  She was their longest serving presenter until she left in 2002.

She continues to work for Radio 4, presenting many other programmes including A Good Read and The Reunion, which won a Sony Gold award in 2007.

She is on the Board of the John Ellerman Foundation, the Young Concert Artists’ Trust, and UNICEF UK. She was awarded the CBE for services to broadcasting in 2002.

Keith Khan
Keith Khan is Head of Culture for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.  He is also an artist, co-founder of motiroti and winner of a New York OBIE.

He was part of the creative team that produced the Millennium Dome’s opening ceremony before going on to be Director of Design Ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.

He was Artistic Director for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Commonwealth celebrations and Chief Executive of Rich Mix, a publicly funded, international cultural and heritage centre which opened in London’s East End in 2006.

Diane Lees
Diane Lees is the Director of the V&A Museum of Childhood. Beginning as an historic buildings researcher and moving into exhibitions, education and interpretation, she has worked on some of the most exciting projects in the country, including the rescue and relocation of a hat block manufacturer’s workshop in central Manchester and the recovery and display of the Mary Rose ship in Portsmouth Harbour.

She is a trustee of the Story Museum in Oxford, a trustee of the Army Museums Ogilby Trust and Vice Chair of the Association of Independent Museums.

Christopher Lloyd CVO
From 1988 to 2005 Christopher Lloyd was Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures, with responsibility for 7000 paintings and 3000 miniatures distributed throughout all the historical royal palaces and the royal residences.

Prior to that he worked for twenty years within the Department of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, combining curatorial duties with university teaching. His principal areas of expertise are the Italian Renaissance and French Impressionism.

He has published widely, curated several national and international exhibitions and lectured frequently in Britain and the USA.

He is President of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies, a Trustee of the Art Fund, a Governor of Gainsborough's House, and a Trustee of the Living Paintings Trust (aiding the visually impaired).

Dr Mark Miodownik
Dr Mark Miodownik is head of the Materials Research Group at King's College London. In 2003 he was awarded a National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts (NESTA) fellowship to create a Materials Library as interaction space for designers, architects and artists to collaborate with materials scientists.

In 2004 he co-presented Chain Reaction on BBC TWO, and in 2005 he co-organised and chaired two seminars at the Tate Modern on the influence of new materials on the arts. He is a member of the Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Group.

Maggie Semple OBE
Maggie Semple is Chief Executive Officer and a Director of The Experience Corps.  She was previously Director of the Learning Experience at the New Millennium Experience Company, Director of Education and Training at Arts Council England, a teacher, school inspector and a deputy head teacher.

She serves on a number of boards including the British Library, National Museum of Science & Industry, Sadlers Wells Theatre Trust and Arts Educational Schools Trust. She is Chair of the National Research & Development Centre at the Institute of Education (London)and Chair of National Youth Music Theatre.

In 2001 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from De Montfort University and an OBE for her services to education.

Emma Soames
Emma Soames is Editor of Saga Magazine, which she joined in March, 2002, and Editorial Director of Saga Publishing.

She was formerly Editor of the Saturday Telegraph Magazine for seven years and before that Editor of ES Magazine, the Evening Standard, Tatler and the Literary Review.  She is also an occasional columnist for the Daily Telegraph.

She has won a number of awards including British Society of Magazine Editors awards for ‘Editor of the Year (Colour Magazines)’ in 1995 and 1997, and ‘Editor of the Year (General Interest and Current Affairs magazines)’ in 2003 and 2004.