Ian has over 30 years of audit and advisory experience, working with organisations in most parts of the UK’s not for profit sector.   Before he retired he worked for Grant Thornton UK LLP as audit and risk partner to many universities, colleges and government agencies, including the Department for Education. Born in Chesterfield, Ian studied Mathematics at the University of Leeds and trained with the National Audit Office in London before settling in Sheffield in 1990.  He lives in Ecclesall and is married with two daughters.
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Ian has always had been passionate about the role of the performing arts in education, driven by a life-long love of music and theatre that was nurtured by his own teenage efforts with the NE Derbyshire Young People Theatre, and continued through his professional life working with organisations such as the Royal Northern College of Music and Leeds College of Music.
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Ian is also a Board member of The Sheffield College, a general Further Education College in South Yorkshire which provides high quality academic, technical and vocational training to young people and adults from across South Yorkshire, Vice Chair of Arches Housing which provides affordable decent homes for the rent, regeneration and revival of communities in Sheffield, and is the independent Chair of Audit of Futureworks School of Media which provides world-class university education and training in sound, music, film and TV, games, animation and visual effects.

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In his spare time, he enjoys live music, theatre and the visual arts, and walking in the Peak District.