New Members appointed to the board of The Royal Parks
The Secretary of State has appointed Viscountess Dunluce and Jane Hurst as Members of the board of The Royal Parks for a term of four years commencing on 14 August 2021 until 13 August 2025.
Viscountess Dunluce
Aurora Dunluce (Aurora Antrim, from August 12th) is an award winning documentary filmmaker who, as Aurora Gunn, has been producing and directing arts films for ITV and Sky Arts’ South Bank Show since 1999. Her subjects have ranged from Shakespeare to Tracey Emin to Herbie Hancock. Aurora is currently developing her first historical drama series for television.
Over the past two decades Aurora has also overseen the running of the Glenarm Castle estate in Northern Ireland. Her estate experience ranges from restoring and replanting an historic walled garden, now considered one of Ireland’s finest, to diversifying the business in order to create new income streams ranging from retail, events and the creation of several high quality local food brands. More recently her board experience has included oversight of the public facing side of the business as well as efforts to drive down its environmental impact and make it more sustainable.
Aurora is passionate about the arts, particularly live theatre and is a patron of Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice. This is Aurora’s first public board appointment.
Jane Hurst
Jane is a qualified accountant (ACA) and former partner in KPMG UK, with 20 years experience of complex financial and operational restructuring, performance improvement and turnaround. She has worked in a vast range of businesses in manufacturing, defence, consumer, retail, insurance and banking – from the very large, and global, to the very small. She has also supported multiple public sector entities undergoing change. Jane has been a co-opted member of The Royal Parks’ Audit and Risk committee since October 2020 where she has really enjoyed getting to know some of the Executive and Trustees. She looks forward to her role as a full trustee of The Royal Parks.
Jane is Mum to two boys aged four and six who love anything outdoors and spend a lot of time bug hunting and kicking balls around. Jane’s other interests include running, cycling and photography, although all need a fair amount of improvement!
These appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The Royal Parks board members are not remunerated. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Both Viscountess Dunluce and Jane Hurst have declared no such political activity.