The Illu­mi­nat­ed Riv­er Foundation team

Lord Neil Mendoza is Provost of Oriel College, Oxford University. He is also the Chair of Historic England, 
and Commissioner for Cultural Recovery and Renewal. In May 2020 he was appointed by the government as Commissioner in response to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the cultural sector, and continues to chair the Culture and Heritage Capital initiative for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 

He led two government reviews — The Mendoza Review of museums in England and a Strategic Review for the Cabinet Office covering the national museums. Additional government appointments included being a Commissioner of Historic England and a member of the review panel looking into the sustainability of English churches and cathedrals. Neil is also a director of Meira GTx, a gene therapy company, listed on Nasdaq.

Previously, Neil was the Chair of The Landmark Trust, and Chair of Children and the Arts, a nationwide charity dedicated to using cultural work to help children in disadvantaged communities and hospices. He was also Vice-Chair of Soho Theatre, a trustee of the Shakespeare Schools Festival and has twice been on the judging panel for the Laurence Olivier Awards.

Early in his career Neil co-founded and ran a publishing company, Forward, that was sold to marketing group, WPP.

Hannah Rothschild is a writer, filmmaker, company director and philanthropist. She has made films for the BBC, HBO and others. Her books have been published in twelve languages. The Improbability of Love won the Bollinger Wodehouse best comic novel and was runner up to the Bailley Women’s prize for fiction in 2015. Her novel House of Trelawney was published in February 2020.

She was the first woman to serve as Chair of the Board of Trustees of The National Gallery from 2015 to 2020.

She is a Non-Executive Director of RIT Capital Partners Ltd and Windmill Hill Asset Management Ltd.

In 2018 she was made CBE for services to Literature and Philanthropy. In 2024, she was awarded a damehood (DBE) for her contribution and services to charity, arts and culture.

Fabia Bromovsky is a Trustee of the Illuminated River Foundation and former Chief Executive of The Rothschild Foundation and Waddesdon Manor, a Rothschild House owned by the National Trust and now managed and opened to the public on their behalf by the Rothschild Foundation. Having stepped down from her role at the Rothschild Foundation, she continues her work on environmental standards and monitoring, regenerative land management and sustainability as Executive Director and Director Global Farm Metric at the Sustainable Food Trust, remains a Director of Waddesdon Wines Ltd and recently joined the Management board for Arcadia, Nyland and Wadhurst Park, family and charitable interests of Lisbet Rausing.

Anthea has recently retired as Principal Adviser of Arcadia, a post held since 2004. She previously worked in the Treasury, and was Chief Executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. She was awarded a CBE in 2003 for services to heritage. Anthea’s roles in the heritage and arts sector have included chair of the Heritage Alliance and Heritage Commissioner on CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment). She is on the boards of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival Trust and a member of the British Council’s Cultural Protection Advisory Group.

Sarah, Hon. Fellow of both RIBA and the Landscape Institute, is a public space and public art expert and curator, and was previously Director of CABE Space at the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment. She was Chair of the Elephant and Castle Regeneration Forum for five years.

Richard is a Chartered Accountant, previously the Finance Director at Disasters Emergency Committee. He brings career experience of managing finance, resources and projects in the arts and not-for-profit sector.