Sir Ian Blatchford was appointed Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group from 1 November 2010 and combined this with the role of Director of the Science Museum from December 2010. The national museum group oversees the Science Museum in London, the National Railway Museum in York, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, Locomotion in County Durham and the Science and Innovation Park in Wiltshire.
Previously Sir Ian was Deputy Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London from December 2004, having joined the museum in April 2002 as Director of Finance and Resources. He started his career in the City, working at the Bank of England and the merchant bankers Barclays de Zoete Wedd, before joining the Arts Council, where he was Deputy Finance Director. He then joined the marketing and design agency Cricket Communications as Financial Controller before becoming Director of Finance at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1996.
Sir Ian read law at Mansfield College, Oxford and holds an MA in Renaissance studies from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Sir Ian has been President of the Royal Literary Fund since November 2020. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was Chairman of the National Museum Directors’ Council from 2017–2021 and was Chairman of the Governors of De Montfort University from 2011–2018. Sir Ian was awarded a Knighthood in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to Cultural Education. Sir Ian is the author of The Art of Innovation from Enlightenment to Dark Matter with co-author Dr Tilly Blyth and co-presented the accompanying BBC Radio 4 series.
GROUP EXECUTIVE
The Group Executive is accountable to the Director and forms the senior management team for the Science Museum Group. This team is responsible for resource allocation, leading strategic management, developing the cultural content and programmes and sustaining Group values.
The members of the Group Executive are:
Group exec
Shri arrived at the Science Museum Group in November 2019 as its Director for Finance and Corporate Services, joining from the Home Office where he was the Interim Finance Director for the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship System.
Prior to joining SMG, Shri worked as a Senior Civil Servant across a variety of finance and performance roles at the Ministry of Justice. A self-confessed ‘data geek’, Shri is also a non-executive board member for Historic England’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.
Shri became Chief Operating Officer for the Science Museum Group in November 2021. In this role, Shri has oversight of operations and resources across all sites, including Corporate Services (Finance, ICT, Legal, Procurement, Governance), Learning, People and Culture, One Collection Programme, Commercial, and Communications.
Peter Dickinson is Director of Communications for the Science Museum Group. He has responsibility for press and marketing, social media, customer relationship management and visitor insight and led the rebranding of the Group’s five museums with a shared visual identity.
Prior to joining the Science Museum Group in 2013, Peter was Head of Communications at Sport England, where he worked on the Olympic and Paralympic legacy and the development of the This Girl Can campaign to promote women’s participation in sport.
Before that, he amassed over a decade’s experience in the media, principally at Sky News and the BBC. He sits on the Board of the Exhibition Road Cultural Group as Chair of its Communications Group, which promotes London’s home of arts and science through Discover South Kensington.
Sarita joined the Science Museum Group as Director of People and Culture in September 2018, with group-wide responsibility for leading and delivering people and cultural change strategy to support the Group’s strategic ambitions. Her remit includes leadership of the People and Culture, Volunteering, Corporate Information and Safety teams across the group.
Sarita’s HR experience has spanned a range of sectors, including higher education, culture, charity and commercial. Prior to joining the Science Museum, Sarita worked as Director of HR and Organisational Development at St George’s, University of London, with a primary focus on supporting the organisation to enable its cultural transformation. Sarita developed her career in the cultural sector at Southbank Centre, where she was instrumental in seeing the organisation through its major transformation programme.
Helen Jones is Director of Global Engagement. She takes the Iead in developing and delivering the Group’s international strategy and partnerships, and managing some of our key stakeholder relationships in the UK and overseas. Her team works around the world through a range of activities that includes touring exhibitions, professional training and development, STEM education, research, and curatorial practice.
With almost 40 years in the museum sector, Helen’s background is in archaeology, in which she trained and practised as a conservator for several years. She moved into education, running the Victoria and Albert Museum’s contribution to a postgraduate programme for training and research in conservation in collaboration with the Royal College of Art and Imperial College. She went on to become Head of Planning at the V&A before moving to the Science Museum in 2008.
Roger Highfield was appointed Science Director of the Science Museum Group in 2019 after serving eight years as Director of External Affairs, when he was responsible for advocacy, press and marketing. Previously he was Editor of New Scientist magazine between 2008 and 2011 and the Science Editor of the Daily Telegraph between 1988 and 2008. Roger has published articles widely, including in Wired, Science, Observer, Sunday Times, Spectator and Economist. He has written ten books, including two bestsellers, and edited two by the genomics pioneer Craig Venter.
For his doctorate at the University of Oxford, Roger became the first person to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble, while working at the Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, Unilever and Southampton. Recently he was made a visiting professor of public engagement at the Dunn School, University of Oxford, and at the Department of Chemistry, UCL.
A member of the UKRI-Medical Research Council and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Roger won the Royal Society’s Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar prize in 2012 and over the decades has garnered many awards for journalism, notably a British Press Award.
Roger was awarded an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to public engagement with science.
Craig Bentley joined the Science Museum Group in 2017 and as Director of Estate, he is responsible for the maintenance and sustainable management of our diverse estate. He started his career within the Information Technology sector as a Systems Analyst with a global solutions provider before his work on infrastructure and buildings led him to transition to a career within the built environment.
Craig is a specialist in Estate and Facilities Management having held senior roles at a variety of cultural and commercial organisations. His substantial experience gained over the past 20 years includes the care for and restoration of historic buildings, as well as the sustainable operation and maintenance of new assets.
Craig is a chartered surveyor (MRICS) and holds an MSc with distinction in Applied Facilities Management from Liverpool John Moores University. He is also a certified member of the Institute for Workplace and Facilities Management.
Anna Dejean is the Masterplan Director for the Science Museum Group. Anna joined the Group in 2013 to deliver the first phase of the Science Museum’s Masterplan, which transformed 50% of the Science Museum by 2019.
Since 2021, Anna holds responsibility for capital programmes across the Group. These include a transformational Masterplan for each of the Group’s Museums as well as the programme of investment in the Group’s wide and varied estate.
Anna has 15 years of experience in capital projects, previously managing new galleries and public realm projects at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Sian Williams joined the Science Museum Group in 2015 to lead on the delivery of the One Collection programme. One Collection is the largest and most ambitious programme the Science Museum Group has undertaken in recent times, and will transform how we care for, access and share our internationally significant collection with the world.
Having originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant, Sian has over 20 years’ experience in the museum sector leading finance and corporate services at Director level for both Tate and the V&A during periods of major capital works and expansion. Sian was also Head of Finance at the Olympic Delivery Authority and worked briefly at DCMS to prepare the business case that secured the funding for the SMG, V&A and British Museum exit from Blythe House.
Sian has a keen interest in art and is a Trustee of the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Julia is Deputy Director of the Science Museum with responsibility for Visitor Experience, Operations, Learning, Curatorial, Collections, and Exhibitions. Julia also holds Group wide responsibility for Sustainability & Net Zero across our five museums and 545 acre national collections site.
Julia joined the museum in 2019 from the Senior Civil Service where she led the Energy and Climate Science team in BEIS, overseeing the science underpinning the UK’s Net Zero by 2050 legislation.
A soil and climate scientist, Julia’s career spans over 20 years in biodiversity, conservation, climate change and sustainable agriculture — including 12 years overseas as a British diplomat in the Foreign Office as Director of the science in East China, Russia & Latin America. In Brazil, she led a £150 Million fund for UK-Brazil research including for identifying new plant species in the Amazon rainforest. Previously Julia worked as a Senior Policy maker and a Countryside Stewardship Adviser for DEFRA.
Julia is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Trustee of the Woodland Trust and a Trustee of Plantlife International. She is a member of the Royal Society’s Public Engagement Committee & Co-Chair of Discover South Kensington — a charity celebrating London’s home of arts and science
Initially a volunteer, then a curator at Manchester Art Gallery, Sally was promoted to Deputy Director of the Geffrye Museum in London, before establishing a new multi-award-winning museum and heritage service in Croydon. Sally went on to work at UCL, leading their museums and theatre and establishing the university’s Public Engagement team.
Whilst at UCL, Sally co-founded Cultural Heritage without Borders, an independent non-governmental organisation dedicated to rescuing and preserving cultural heritage affected by conflict, neglect, or human and natural disaster, and has worked internationally with UNESCO and the British Council. Sally has been a board member of several cultural sector organisations.
Sally was awarded an OBE for services to the arts and heritage in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours list.
Jo Quinton-Tulloch became the Director of what was then the National Media Museum in 2013. Her 20 years in museums began as an Explainer in the Learning team at the Science Museum. She has gone on to deliver world-class galleries and exhibitions, including being part of the team that designed and established the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.
Jo’s focus in Bradford has been to forge new sustainable partnerships across the city and region which reposition the Museum as a centre of excellence in STEM learning. As part of this focus, Jo led a major relaunch of the renamed and rebranded National Science and Media Museum in spring 2017.
Jo has an honours degree in biological sciences from the University of East Anglia and an MSc in science communication from Imperial College. She is a Fellow of the RSA and a Board Member for Bradford UNESCO City of Film.
Judith McNicol became the Director of the National Railway Museum in 2017, with a remit to deliver the first phases of the museum’s redevelopment, including Locomotion in County Durham. Judith joined the Science Museum Group in 2005 and has undertaken a variety of senior roles.
Judith started her career working in engineering, including starting a machine tool company in her 20s, and moving on to work with a venture capitalist in the engineering sector, where she led a diverse range of companies.
Deborah Myers has over 25 years’ experience in the culture, HE and charitable sectors.
Deborah’s career has focused on major donor development, following an all-round training at Jewish Care. From there she started the Patrons’ programme at Sadler’s Wells theatre, followed by building the major donor team at the Royal Opera House. She joined the British Film Institute as Deputy Director of Development to work on their proposed Capital Campaign. A stint in Principal Gifts at King’s College London followed. More recently Deborah spent five years at the National Gallery as Head of Development.
Following a period as a consultant and interim, Deborah then became Director of Fundraising and Partnerships at the Science Museum Group, working with an ambitious team to build income across five museums nationwide.
Nicolas Raynaud joined the Group as Director of Finance and Corporate Services in November 2022, with oversight of Finance, ICT, Legal and Procurement.
After an early career in banking in Paris and London, he became interested in how finance could have a positive social impact and worked for a range of organisations aiming to transform people’s lives, through the arts (Arts Council), social housing (Circle Housing), international teaching and cultural cooperation (British Council). His most recent roles were in international development, as Finance Director of WaterAid (2015–2019) and Chief Operating Officer of BBC Media Action (2019–2022).
Nicolas holds degrees from HEC Business School and Sciences Po (Paris) and is a chartered accountant (ACCA).
