Creative Enterprise Development Office

As RKE Development Officer, Stephanie supports students, staff, and recent graduates from across the institution and in the wider community with creative enterprise support, funding, and engagement initiatives. She coordinates the newly developed Creative Enterprise Development Office.

Rachael Arnold has over twenty years of experience as a leader in the creative and social enterprise sector. She builds impactful businesses and turns ideas into reality. As Chief Executive of The Future Economy Company, she leads an all-female executive team across a wide range of innovative programmes that up-skill, empower and connect the creative community. Join Rachael to chat through what your creative/professional practise, what are the challenges and how to create balance, make money and enjoy your work, positivity and creating strategies for success are the focus of these short and sharp sessions.

Two-time Law Award winner Philip Hannay is Managing Director of Cloch Solicitors Limited, a Scottish legal boutique specialising in business law & intellectual property and is well-known for assisting creative entrepreneurs in generating money from ideas and artistic practice. Philip ranks in the UK top 10 (only Scot) for appearances at the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office in relation to contentious matters. In addition to current committee positions as Governor of the Baillie’s Institution and Council Member of The Stair Society, Philip holds senior academic positions in the University of Strathclyde School of Law.  

David has led Brett Nicholls Associates, a small growing accounting and consulting practice, since 2018. He is passionate about building a purpose-driven business and proudly achieved B Corp certification in 2023. David’s firm has many creative sector clients, and he provides general accounting and tax advice as well as specialist support in Creative Industry Tax Reliefs.

A consultant and project manager in the classical musical and ballet industry, Elise has over 15 years of experience in music management, spanning a 20 year career in the arts, music and entertainment businesses. Elise combines her interests in culture and the arts with a desire to assist her immediate and wider community. As well as spearheading her own voluntary initiatives, Elise is on the Development Committee for Clean Break, is a trustee for Hammersmith & Fulham Giving, a trustee for Carnival Village Trust, a Board Director of Leeds Conservatoire, a Non-Exec Director of Come Play with Me and is the founder and Chair of Mama Haven, a charity she created to address socio economic barriers amongst women.

Alasdair Nicolson is an award-winning composer, conductor and festival director, educationalist and occasional broadcaster. Regarded as one of Scotland’s finest musicians of his generation, he was brought up on the Isle of Skye and the Black Isle and studied at Edinburgh University. In the early 90s he came to widespread public attention winning the IBM Composers’ Prize for The Tree of Strings. He has since written music for many of the world’s leading performers, ensembles and orchestras and his music has been broadcast regularly. He also has a strong reputation as a programmer and educator and has written books on Composition and created a UK wide project Sound Inventors. Currently Festival Director for St Magnus International Festival and previously Bath International Festival, Northlands Festival, Platform Festival, he is also Artistic Director of his own ensemble The Assembly Project.

James has worked in and around the arts for over 15 years, beginning at IMG Artists and continuing at First Chair Promotion, where he manages a group of composers, performers, and creators who have made work in all corners of the globe, across traditional and outdated genre boundaries, and on a scale ranging from small dirty room to legendary opera house. He also facilitates projects for creators seeking help in addition to standard teams and structures and emphasizes outreach and expanding points of contact for all audiences interested in the arts.