Vikki Heywood CBE
Chairman of Mountview, board member of the National Theatre, and a trustee of the Foyle Foundation
Speaker's biography
Vikki Heywood is the Chairman of Mountview, a board member of the National Theatre, where she chairs the National Theatre Productions Ltd advisory board on commercial theatre and film, and a trustee of the Foyle Foundation. Until 2018, Vikki was Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts, the first in its history to be invited to return for a second three-year term. She has just completed being the Chairman of 14-18 NOW – a £50 million programme of First World War Centenary arts commissions that reached over 35 million people, across the UK, over five years.
Vikki was the Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) from 2003 until 2012, and before that Joint Chief Executive of the Royal Court Theatre. In addition to her organisational leadership she was also responsible for the multi-million pound redevelopment of both national institutions. Amongst other senior management roles in theatre, Vikki has also been an executive producer for a significant number of shows in the West End and on Broadway, including Matilda the Musical.
Past roles include board membership of the Society of London Theatre, the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, membership of Warwick University Council and Chairman of the highly influential Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value.
An Honorary Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Vikki was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham, becoming a Doctor of Letters in December 2009. In 2019 she completed a Master of Arts degree in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths University. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2012 for services to theatre and her husband, Clive Jones, CBE KCMG was knighted in the Queens Birthday Honours in 2019 for services to humanitarian crises.
