Our team

Paula is honoured and delighted to chair the prestigious Mayflower Theatre, having supported the theatre for a decade as a trustee and chair of the Audit and Governance committee. A Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser, Paula’s career has spanned three decades advising leisure and retail clients across the South, culminating in a decade as partner with KPMG. For her, Mayflower Theatre is a true combination of business and pleasure and she enjoys leading a proactive and dynamic Board supporting a sector leading Executive team. Our community should be proud that, in Mayflower Theatre, Southampton boasts arguably the most successful regional theatre in the UK, with a programme that attracts a diverse audience from across the South of England. 

Having been born and lived most of her life in the city, Paula is passionate about Southampton and social mobility for the youth who reside here. She sees Mayflower Theatre as being at the heart of the community and her involvement the culmination of numerous voluntary initiatives both at home and overseas. Music, choral singing and musical and operatic theatre have always played a big part in her life given her interests in singing and piano. She is married to Matthew and they have two sons who have enjoyed taking part in Mayflower Theatre’s excellent youth productions. 

Nick was Senior Partner of Paris Smith LLP Solicitors for  17 years and for the past 30 years, has been acting for charities advising on governance, trustees’ liabilities, fundraising, etc. Nick has been a trustee or governor of City College, Testway Housing (now Aster), Hampshire & Isle of Wight Deaf Association, Friends of St Nicolas; Assistant Governor of Rotary International; Chair of Nuffield Theatre; Chair of the Winchester Hospice Fundraising Charity; Chair of Members of Rosewood School; Governor at St Edward’s Behavioural, Emotional and Special Needs School; Prince’s Trust and of course Mayflower Theatre as chair of its Audit and Governance Committee Chair of the Nominations Committee and is delighted to have been appointed Vice Chair of the Trust. 
 
Nick has had a love of theatre and music from an early age. He plays the piano, the organ, conducts and sings. Nick is married to Karen and has lived in the local area for most of his life.

Bob has been a Board member for many years and takes an active interest in theatre and the arts.  As well as main board activity he is also a Director of Mayflower Enterprises Limited.  He is a Chartered Surveyor, now semi-retired having practiced in Southampton for more than 40 years. 

Living in Wiltshire, Bob is involved with a number of community projects and is Chair of Wilton Men’s Shed, a community workshop.  In his spare time he enjoys live music and is a keen musician/guitarist. 

Kim Romero joined the Mayflower Theatre Trust’s Board of Directors in June of 2021.  Kim currently works as the Head of Growth for a local software development firm and brings 20+ years of digital marketing and strategic sales consultancy experience to the Board. 

Kim was raised in America on a steady diet of musical theatre – one of her favourite memories is seeing Michael Crawford as the Phantom of the Opera when she was a teenager – and continues to attend as many shows as possible, occasionally accompanied by one or both of her children. She has lived on the South Coast for over fourteen years and loves traveling and going for long walks in the New Forest and South Downs. 

Shaun has been a Director of Mayflower Theatre for 7 years and is also the Chair of the theatre’s trading company Mayflower Enterprises Ltd. Prior to retirement, Shaun was the President of European Large Enterprises for Xerox Corporation. Now retired and living in East Dorset, Shaun spends his time motorcycling, sailing and playing golf.

Rachel is Client Delivery Director at dragonfish – an award-winning culture consultancy that partners with leaders in ambitious brands seeking to transform their organisation’s performance through culture change and employee engagement. Prior to joining dragonfish, Rachel was CEO for 4 years of £5m turnover Southampton charity City Catering, leading and supporting 250 employees to keep the city’s children and vulnerable adults fed in tough times. Rachel’s passion is for organisational transformation – unlocking the power of people. She is an International Coaching Federation accredited coach and has a background in consultancy and leadership stretching back to the late 90s. Rachel is a Fellow at the RSA (the royal society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce).

As a Director with many years’ experience in both Executive and Non-Executive roles within a regulatory environment, Dawn has first-hand knowledge of the responsibilities required of company boards. This includes not only technical skills in the areas of governance, audit, risk management, internal controls and strategic development, but also the interpersonal skills to objectively assess, challenge, analyse and support. 

Dawn has a career spanning 25 years across the public and private sectors.  In addition, Dawn’s areas of expertise include the creation of value through growth, group structure establishment and corporate structure consolidation.  Dawn has also served as a board director of a specialist care provider and currently holds other executive directorships within Aster Group where she has executive responsibility for strategy, growth and assurance, as well as being a Non-Executive Director on the Board of a housing association.  Previous experience has included providing support to social housing providers and local authorities focusing on: governance, organisational change, strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, as well as, project management consultancy. Dawn is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, the Institute of Business Administrators and ICSA: the governance institute. 

Dawn’s interest in the theatre dates back to her pre-teen years when she was an enthusiastic member of various amateur dramatic societies.  She has a particular love of musicals and is a regular at Mayflower Theatre, where she hasn’t missed a festive season pantomime with her family in years. 

Sam is the General Manager at The Old Vic theatre in London, where he has worked for 7 years.  Prior to that, Sam worked in the West End on commercial large-scale musicals and plays for an independent producing and general management company, Playful Productions, running productions such as Wicked and Kinky Boots.  Sam has always worked in theatre and has held roles at theatres such as the Watermill Theatre, The Gate – Notting Hill, Rose Theatre Kingston, Act Productions & National Youth Music Theatre.  A graduate of Southampton University and King’s College London, Sam is a keen sportsman, an associate member of the MCC and liveryman of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. 

Guy has lived and worked in the area for many years, through careers in both the Royal Navy and with the UK’s largest air traffic control services provider, NATS, where his current role is as Director of Corporate Strategy.  He has now settled in Alresford where he lives with his wife, daughter and their family labradoodle.  Guy has an MSc in Air Transport Management from City, University of London, and, additionally, has recently graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with for an Executive MSc in Social Business and Entrepreneurship.  Guy’s love of theatre and the arts began at an early age and he is extremely honoured to support the ongoing success of Mayflower Theatre. 

Following completion of a BSc in Equine Studies, Louise started her career working in the equine industry. Louise then made the decision to utilise her MSc in Finance and Law and moved to IBM where she qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant. Having undertaken a number of roles across financial planning and commercial management, Louise made the move to NATS, the UK’s largest air traffic control services provider. 

Throughout her time at NATS, Louise has undertaken a number of roles within Finance, within Economic Regulation and also within Operations as General Manager Customer Affairs. She has since returned to Finance as Director, FP&A where she holds responsibility for delivering the company business plan both annually and in service of the longer term economic regulatory price control and for providing insightful analysis and management information to aid strategic decision making.

Angie Ballinger’s corporate career has provided an opportunity to work with international teams delivering vision, leadership, direction and financial performance whilst ensuring that appropriate governance and policy adherence on both a UK and International level.  She has experience in senior leadership roles across the areas of Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Commercial Management, International Bids and Tenders and Leasing. In all these areas she has been responsible for ensuring the operating performance within appropriate levels of risk.

Within the Charity sector, between 2005 and 2012, she was a Director Trustee of an Educational Trust delivering programmes to develop literacy and numeracy skills within schools and at an adult level, within the prison sector.  The role of the board was to be responsible for the governance of the charity, supporting the Executive team to deliver excellence as well as holding them to account for operational performance. Key skills demonstrated in this role were teamwork, openness, good communication and influencing skills, the ability to scrutinize and question, to interpret financial and written information rapidly to identify key points and reach agreement on key actions. She has also been Vice Chair of Governors at a primary school and held the position of Honorary Secretary for The Windsor Yacht Club.

In terms of the arts, she thoroughly enjoys the performance arts including live theatre and music.  Before moving to Lymington she experienced excellent performances at the Oxford theatres, High Wycombe, Stratford and of course London venues.  She has attended many excellent performances at The Mayflower and more recently at MAST Mayflower Studio. Her other interests include boating, pilates, walking and she is a member of the Encore Choir in Lymington.

Angie believes her skills will be of value to The Mayflower Theatre Trust and is looking forward to working with the Mayflower teams.

Helen has a corporate and charity background, working in financial services, people management, coaching, operations, and governance.  Helen has a passion for theatre and live music, stemming from her first visit to Mayflower Theatre as a child to see the pantomime!  In her spare time, she loves to spend with her family, watch shows, and travel.   

Isobel Gatward, President 
David Chisnall 
Stephen & Philip Daniells 
Urszula Derejko-Cooper 
Alison Farrell 
John Hannides 
Malcolm Le Bas 
Colin Lewis 
Lindsey Noble 
Tim Prentki 
Mike Smith 
Christine Taylor