Meet the team

Amy Letman

Bio

Amy is Creative Director and founder of Transform, which she established in 2015 with the mission to develop a bold, brave, vivid and socially conscious international performance festival for Leeds. She has a 15-year track record developing and delivering ambitious multi-disciplinary cultural experiences in the North of England and beyond.

Amy has overseen all of Transform’s past festivals, programming large-scale international work by coletivA ocupação, Tianzhuo Chen, Amanda Piña and many others. She has also commissioned award-winning new work touring nationally and internationally by artists including Quarantine, Javaad Alipoor and APHIDS. Amy has led on securing multiple partnerships and funding opportunities for Transform, including securing NPO status for the company.

Previously Amy was Associate Producer at Leeds Playhouse, establishing artist development programme ‘Furnace’. She curated guest programme ‘Spirit of Change’ for the Barbican, and was Associate Programmer at Battersea Arts Centre. Amy also produced independently for UK Theatre award winning company RashDash.

Amy was part of developing ‘Horizon’ showcase for the Edinburgh Festivals. She established ‘Festivals of the Future’ Creative Europe network , and co-led the ‘Imagining Futures’ network with Goethe-Institute. Amy is a Clore Fellow, completing her secondment at Southbank Centre. In 2022 she was named by The Stage as one of 25 people in the UK expected to change the future of theatre. She is Co-Chair of the board for Common/Wealth Theatre.

Ali Ford

Bio

Ali is Executive Director at Transform, overseeing the finance, operations and exec producing our biennial international festivals. Prior to this role she was Producer at Transform, overseeing the delivery of Transform 21-22 and a series of new commissions.

She is a producer, programmer and practitioner specialising in multi-disciplinary devised work, socially engaged practice and non-traditional, site-responsive experiences. Excited by bold, innovative, politically-charged performance on a local and international level, she is passionate about bringing communities together, developing creative people/projects and reimagining what theatre can look like and who gets to make it.

As an independent producer, Ali has worked with political site-specific theatre company Common Wealth (I Have Met the Enemy (and the enemy is us)), award-winning performance storyteller Debs Newbold (Outrageous Fortune) and the Nesta-awarded ‘Democracy Pioneers’ TheatreState (Say Yes to Tess), of which she is a Co-Director alongside partner in crime Tess Seddon. Ali was previously Programmer and Producer at Square Chapel Arts Centre (Halifax) where she led on the programme of new work, artist development, co-production and commissioning.

After graduating from the University of Leeds with a Theatre and Performance BA in 2011 and spending the first summer of many at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ali went on to train at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester as a Young Leader, where she gained professional development, expert mentoring and hands-on experience in producing, directing and facilitating.

Ema Boswood

Bio

Ema Boswood is Producer for Transform Festival. Based in Leeds, she is responsible for the delivery of our projects and festivals. 
 
Ema began her career in the arts at the Marlborough Theatre in Brighton. Here she coordinated the first New Queers on the Block tour, an LGBTQIA+ artist and community development programme and network working in Blackpool, Bradford, Brighton, Folkestone and Hastings. She delivered several micro-festivals at the Marlborough, including Young, Queer & Skint and Radical Softness, and was responsible for the co-curation and delivery of programmes including Fat Pride and Trans Pride Season. 
 
Following this she relocated to Cambridge, where she worked as Arts Producer at Cambridge Junction from 2019 to 2023. Here she focussed on artist development, commissioning and the co-curation of multiple seasons of performance, presenting contemporary theatre, performance art, dance, circus, spoken word and family work. She is a founding member of Cambridge based collective Club Urania who host performance cabaret/club events to counter the lack of LGBTQIA+ spaces in the city. Ema led on the programming and delivery of contemporary performance festival DISRUPT, showcasing the work of over 15 artists in the course of two days across each of the Cambridge Junction venues. 
 
Ema studied Drama at Queen Mary, University of London and has a practice as an independent artist. In 2019 she performed her Arts Council supported show Ghost Sexxx in Brighton and Leeds.

Brad Welch

Bio

Brad Welch started his career in the arts working at Battersea Arts Centre, where he worked across both Operations and Events. He supported the building launching as the world’s first fully relaxed venue, was a member of the team supporting the reopening of the building publicly during the pandemic when it became an NHS vaccine centre, and through his work with the Events team was able to work with partners including Sky Arts, a large number of London’s top orchestras, as well as filming for music videos and feature films. After this he worked briefly for Good Chance Theatre as their administrator, before spending the last two years as Operations Manager for Go Live Theatre Projects, a charity that aims to remove barriers to participation for young people in the arts. Prior to this Brad worked as a freelance theatre maker and producer, predominantly working with emerging international artists across London and the Southeast, as well as working with young people as a workshop facilitator, and as a tutor at The Ufton Drama Summer School.

Brad has an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and studied BA Drama at The University of Winchester.

Hannah Keating

Bio

Hannah is an experienced arts marketing and communications professional based in Leeds, having previously worked on exhibitions, events and participation programmes across a range of visual arts organisations including Yorkshire Contemporary (formerly The Tetley), South London Gallery and Pump House Gallery. With an audience focused approach that spans the full range and breadth of marketing channels, Hannah is passionate about delivering meaningful and accessible communications.

Jane Bhoyroo

Bio

Jane is the Producer for Yorkshire Sculpture International (YSI), a unique partnership between Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, The Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park – working together to celebrate Yorkshire as the home of sculpture in the UK. She curated the international sculpture commissions in the public realm for YSI’s festival in 2019 and is producing the commissions for the summer 2021 programme featuring artists Akeelah Bertram, Claye Bowler, Nwando Ebizie, Ashley Holmes, Shezad Dawood and Ariel René Jackson. Since moving to Leeds in 2010 she has curated a major Joseph Beuys exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery, was previously director of S1 Artspace, Sheffield and sculpture curator for the Arts Council Collection. Between 2004 and 2010 she was Relationship Manager for Visual Arts at Arts Council England based in Cambridge. Jane began her career in London in the mid-1990s at Matt’s Gallery and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, and studied on the international Curatorial Programme at De Appel in Amsterdam.

Nick Dyson

Bio

Nick Dyson is a Partner at Blacks Solicitors and heads up both the Commercial Property team and specialist Holiday & Home Parks team. Nick joined Blacks in 2002 from an internationally recognised ‘Leeds Big Six’ firm, and is known for bringing a pragmatic and personal touch to working with clients. Since taking his position as a Partner at Blacks, the Commercial Property team has more than quadrupled in size. He advises property investors, developers and occupiers as well as funders on acquiring, developing, selling, letting and charging property. He has built up strong relationships with some of the key regional property professionals and is a well-known and respected name in the Leeds legal market for practical, commercial legal advice. Outside of professional life, Nick has been active in supporting community organisations and as such, has been a board member at Sinai Synagogue, Leeds (2018-2021) and East Street Arts (2016-2021) and recently became a member at Leeds Community Foundation

David Harradine

Bio

Trustee David Harradine, is co-founder and co-artistic director of Fevered Sleep, an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation that makes performances, installations, films, books and digital art. He’s also Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, where he leads and supports a cohort of practitioner researchers as Academic Lead for Practice Research.

He grew up in a rural, working class community in West Yorkshire, and was the first person in his family to remain in education post-16, and the first to work in the arts. He lives and works in York and London.

Khai (Nur Khairiyah Bte Ramli)

Bio

Trustee Khai (Nur Khairiyah Binte Ramli) is a Muslim-Malay creative producer from Singapore, now based in London. She holds an MA in Creative Producing from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In 2020, she founded RUMAH, a platform uplifting Asian diaspora creatives in the UK, and was nominated for a NatWest Asian Women of Achievement Award in 2022.

Her work spans new writing, physical theatre, and socially engaged performance. She has held roles with Brixton House as Associate Producer, Spare Tyre as Tour Producer, and Complicité as Assistant Producer. Her freelance credits include the award-winning Patricia Gets Ready and the devised solo show Who Took My Malay Away?. She was also awarded the Stage One Producers Bursary in 2021.

Currently transitioning into General Management, Khai works with LUNG, Hiccup Theatre and Spymonkey. She is passionate about inclusive, accessible theatre and committed to championing underrepresented voices through bold, community-rooted storytelling.

Karen Murgatroyd

Bio

Trustee Karen Murgatroyd has led Leeds City Council‘s International Relations team since 2008, developing strategic partnerships in countries across the world including Finland, China, Jamaica, South Africa, USA, France and Ukraine. She sees partnership working as the key to making Leeds a successful city known internationally for its rich cultural offer, and works to unite a large range of city stakeholders behind the #GlobalLeeds banner including universities, businesses, cultural organisations and the third sector.

She led the European dimension to Leeds’ bid for European Capital of Culture, building the city’s capacity to run an international year of culture and this is how she was first introduced to the groundbreaking international work of Transform. When the UK was disqualified from the European Capital of Culture programme after Brexit, she continued to develop international cultural connections in preparation for Leeds 2023 Year of Culture, and was seconded as the Executive Partnership Manager working across Leeds City Council and Leeds Culture Trust from 2022 to 2024.

Karen is a member of the advisory board of the City Diplomacy Lab of the University of Colombia Global Centre in Paris and has recently joined the Berlin and Washington DC based City Directors of International Affairs network.

Helen Nakhwal

Bio

Helen Nakhwal is a CIMA-qualified accountant and was a finance director in industry before transferring to the arts/charity sector in 2003. She has since worked as Finance Director at Birmingham REP and Leeds Playhouse and is currently part-time at Pilot Theatre. She has also worked in consultancy roles on short-term projects in arts organisations in the region, and is co-chair of Yorkshire & Humber Visual Arts Network in a voluntary capacity.

Nadine Patel

Bio

Nadine has worked in the arts sector for over 26 years supporting artists and arts organisations to develop and strengthen their opportunities and growth. As a creative consultant she draws upon her wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary arts practices and networks to provide specialist advice, as well as participating directly in project design, implementation, research, and evaluation. She brings a wealth of experience and expertise working with international cultural organisations and is adept at working on transnational partnerships and programmes. She has extensive transnational experience and can activate a wide network of contacts, both in institutional and grassroots organisations across Europe, Latin America and Africa. Nadine also works regularly for a range of UK higher education creative institutions such as the Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London, Glasgow School of Art, Royal Northern College of Music and Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. As a policy researcher she supports these institutions through evidenced-based policy analysis and advocacy, highlighting the contributions they make to the economy as well as the UK’s cultural prosperity and social wellbeing.