Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA) is delighted to announce the appointment of new members to our Board, including a new Chair, strengthening our charity’s mission to build a performing arts industry where care and career can thrive together.
As we celebrate 10 years of progress, we are looking ahead with a renewed strategic focus — expanding our work, deepening our partnerships, and accelerating impact. This next chapter builds on a decade of evidence, advocacy and sector change to create an even more inclusive and sustainable future for parents and carers.
We are delighted to welcome Julia Potts as Chair and Rebekah Jones as Trustee.
As Chair, Julia brings extensive leadership and governance experience and has played an influential role in shaping sector-wide policy change. Rebekah joins the Board as Trustee, contributing significant expertise in organisational leadership, audience engagement, and workforce development.
Julia and Rebekah join PiPA, as it marks its 10th anniversary, at the end of a period led by Interim Co Chairs Laura Harvey and Shazia Mustafa.
Through their distinctive co-leadership approach, they strengthened shared ownership and collaboration between trustees and Co-CEOs during a significant period of development for the organisation.
The Board would like to thank Laura Harvey and Shazia Mustafa for their dedicated service as Interim Co-Chairs. Their thoughtful leadership helped guide PiPA through an important period of transition, strengthening the organisation and positioning it for its next phase of growth.
Speaking on their time as Interim Co-Chairs, Laura Harvey and Shazia Mustafa said:
“Being Interim Co-Chairs together meant leading PiPA through one of its most significant periods – marking our 10th anniversary, and establishing a genuinely collaborative way of working with our Co-CEOs and Board to dismantle traditional, hierarchical board structures, and proving how well it can work.
We started the work on embedding an anti-racism lens into what PiPA does, to help build a genuinely more diverse industry. We also sharpened our business planning, so we’re making full use of what PiPA already offers and putting real energy behind growing support for individuals. We brought complementary strengths to the role and we’re proud of what that partnership built. PiPA moves into its next chapter, under Julia’s leadership, from a position of real strength.”
Meet our new Chair and Trustee
Chair – Julia Potts
Julia is Senior Business Director for ATG Entertainment UK, a role which means, in practice, that she leads nine of the company’s regional theatres – Edinburgh Playhouse, Glasgow King’s, Theatre Royal Glasgow, Sunderland Empire, Manchester Palace and Opera House, Liverpool Empire, Bristol Hippodrome and Milton Keynes Theatre.
She has previously held the role of Executive Director at the Almeida Theatre, as well as Group Head of Creative Learning for ATG, having started her career as an Education Officer working in regional theatre. Julia was a Clore Fellow in 2007/08.
In addition to her role at ATGE, Julia is an elected Board member of UK Theatre, a Trustee of the Sunderland Empire Theatre Trust and of the Manchester Palace and Opera House Trust, and Vice Chair of Governors for Bullers Wood School for Girls.
She has previously served as Chair of Magpie Dance, an inclusive dance company for young people. She is also mum to a 12-year-old daughter and carer to an 89-year-old auntie.
“I am genuinely delighted to be joining the Board of PiPA as Chair. I have followed Anna’s and Cassie’s work since the organisation’s inception over a decade ago, not least because its ambitions resonated with me very much as the parent of a young child at the time.
I am now looking forward to working with them both more closely, to supporting their vision for the next phase, and to leading this brilliant board to help realise PiPA’s full potential”
Rebekah Jones – Trustee
Rebekah Jones is Executive Director and Co-CEO of the Unicorn Theatre, the UK’s leading producing theatre for children and young people. With more than 20 years’ experience across the subsidised and commercial theatre sectors, she has held senior leadership roles at the Royal Court Theatre, The Old Vic, Curve Leicester and the Marlowe Theatre.
At the Unicorn, Rebekah leads the organisation’s strategic, financial and operational direction, overseeing ambitious plans for audience growth, organisational sustainability and a major capital redevelopment programme. She is passionate about creating inclusive, financially resilient cultural organisations that place children, artists and communities at their heart.
Alongside her executive role, Rebekah is Deputy Chair of the London Theatre Consortium. She is a regular speaker on arts leadership, governance, sustainability and the future of theatre for young audiences.
“I joined the PiPA Board because, as a mum of three boys, I know first-hand that the juggle is real. Parents returning to work are some of the hardest-working people in our industry, and I’m passionate about helping make the performing arts a place where careers and family life can thrive together.”
