News story

Four new Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum appointed

The Prime Minister has appointed Allegra Berman and Martin Bartle as Business Trustees, Amanda Levete as Creative Industries Trustee, and Amanda Spielman as Education Trustee of the V&A for a period of four years from 1st March 2020 to 29th February 2024.

Allegra Berman

Allegra is Global Co-Head of HSBC’s Securities Services. With some USD8 trillion of assets under custody, HSBC has one of the largest Securities Services platforms across the financial industry.

Previously, Allegra was Head of the Financial Institutions Group, EMEA and Global Head of the Public Sector Group. Prior to joining HSBC in 2013, Allegra spent 12 years at UBS, where she co-led UBS’s EMEA Debt Capital Markets business, was Global Head of Public Sector Fixed Income and Vice Chair of Global Capital Markets. Allegra was a Non-Executive Director of HSBC Asset Management UK (2016 to 2018) and a Board Member of the International Capital Market Association (2011 to 2013).

Allegra has won numerous industry awards including “Most influential woman in European Investment Banking” in 2011 and has been recognised in the annual “Top 100 women in European Finance” awards every year since 2008. Allegra served on the Board of Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery (2011 to 2019) where she was Chair of both the Gallery’s Investment Committee and its Finance Committee. Allegra has an MA in Modern Languages from Magdalen College, Oxford, where she is also a Trustee of its Development Board.

Martin Bartle

Martin is a seasoned Retail and Marketing professional with over 25 years Marketing and eCommerce experience. He has worked with some of the world’s leading luxury and fashion retailers at key moments in their development including; Marketing Director at NET-A-PORTER; Matches Fashion and MyTheresa during their transition from boutiques into global online businesses. Bartle was also VP of Business Development at Lane Crawford leading an 18 month project to launch them online in China, Hong Kong and internationally.

As a consultant, he has worked with over 30 brands including Margaret Howell, Mulberry, Paul Smith, Alice Temperley, SpaceNK and Charlotte Olympia. He is also a mentor on the Walpole Brands of Tomorrow programme.

Amanda Levete

Amanda Levete is a Stirling Prize winning architect, and founder and principal of AL_A, an international award-winning architecture studio. Recently completed projects include the Victoria & Albert Museum Exhibition Road Quarter (2017) in London; MAAT (2016) a Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon, commissioned by EDP; Central Embassy (2017), a 1.5 million sq ft luxury shopping mall and hotel in Bangkok; a media campus and headquarters building for Sky (2016) in London.

Ongoing commissions include the Paisley Museum in Scotland; a centre for the cancer care charity Maggie’s in Southampton; two buildings for Wadham College, Oxford; three hospital buildings in Cyprus; a headquarters building in Brussels; and a theatre in Barcelona.

Amanda is a regular radio and TV broadcaster, writes for a number of publications and lectures throughout the world. In 2017 she was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours list and made a CBE for services to architecture. In 2018 she was awarded the Jane Drew Prize and in 2019 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Amanda Spielman

Amanda Spielman is Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector at Ofsted, responsible for the inspection of schools, colleges, apprenticeships, adult education, nurseries, childminders and children’s social care.

Before this she was chair of Ofqual, the qualifications regulator, and research and policy director at the academy chain Ark Schools. Her early career was in strategy consulting, finance and investment at KPMG, Kleinwort Benson, Mercer Management Consulting and Nomura International.

She has also been a council member at Brunel University London and the Institute of Education, a director of the Wales Millennium Centre, and a school governor.

These roles are not remunerated. These appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments , the process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The Government’s Governance Code requires that any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years is declared. This is defined as holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation or candidature for election. Ms Berman, Mr Bartle, Ms Levete, and Ms Spielman have not declared any activity.

Published 2 March 2020