Our Board
Prime Cut Productions is governed by a Board of 8, each of whom brings specific areas of expertise to the company. From areas such as fundraising and strategic development to sector knowledge through professional practice in the theatre as well as academic excellence, to finance and accounting to community and youth work issues, all aspects of our work are informed and guided by the wide range of knowledge and experience within our Board. Our accounts are overseen by a chartered accountant, our outreach work informed by a highly experienced youth and community worker, our PR supported by an award winning PR Consultant. Additionally we are able to secure the advice of one of Northern Ireland’s most respected actors and tutors. Strategically we are supported by a highly experienced fundraiser, arts administrator and arts consultant.
In addition to this our Board reflects diversity throughout. Comprised of 5 men and 3 women, it includes members of the Protestant and Catholic Communities, a broad spectrum of political and class backgrounds as well as representation from the gay community.
Paul Artherton: Chair
Paul Artherton has a BA from Queen’s University and a MA Degree from Pennsylvania State University. He has worked in PR and fundraising for nearly 25 years. Previously assistant director for fundraising and public relations at the Simon Community Northern Ireland for seven years, for the last 13 years he has run his own fundraising consultancy business specialising in fundraising, sponsorship, public relations and recruitment. His clients have included charities, private sector and public bodies. Examples include the Ulster Cancer Foundation, Simon Communities of Ireland, North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust, Aiken Promotions, the Industrial Development Board and the Ulster Museum. He is also editor of the Ireland section of www.fundraising.co.uk
Peter Ballance
Peter Ballance has been an actor since 1991 working in Ireland and England. He qualified as an accent coach in 2001 after completing his Masters in Voice Studies at Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Since then he has worked on many productions for stage and television providing advice on accents and voice for: Kabosh, Bruiser, Tinderbox, B.B.C N.I., Big Telly, Prime Cut and The Lyric Theatre amongst others. He is also involved with Q.U.B.'s B.A. in Drama and their Centre of Excellence in the Creative and Performing Arts. He is currently the new co-ordinator of the BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts at Southern Regional College.
Chris Harrison
Chris is an Account Director with leading public relations consultancy JPR. His expertise is in corporate relations, business-to-business communications, issues management, media relations and online PR. He has managed major campaigns and projects in these sectors for clients including Ulster Bank/RBS, Caterpillar, Brett Martin, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Community Relations Council. Chris has won numerous industry awards due to the impact of his work.
Chris was the youngest ever regional chairman of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and won the Young Communicator of the Year Award at the Northern Ireland Pride Awards in 2004. An MSc graduate, with distinction, in Communication, Public Relations and Advertising, he also holds a BA Honours degree in Modern and Contemporary History, for which he won the University of Ulster’s George Richards Prize.
Chris once wrote a statement on behalf of Prime Minister Tony Blair in relation to Northern Ireland Community Relations Week. He also edits Northern Ireland’s largest circulation business publication, on behalf of Ulster Bank – the quarterly Business Bite, which has a print run of over 200,000.
Brian Hegarty
Brian Hegarty is a Chartered Accountant with six years’ experience of conducting audits of organisations in both the public and private sectors, and is an expert in financial modelling and financial planning, having provided specialist modelling services to global plcs for over three years. Brian has been a Director of Prime Cut Productions since January 2010
In 2009, Brian assisted OMAC with the preparation of a business plan and financial plan covering the transition from the Old Museum to The MAC. Brian has recent experience of helping clients in the public and private sector improve their financial and management reporting through service and product costing exercises, and conducting reviews of procedures for the preparation of management reporting packs. This work has aimed to help clients to improve the accuracy, relevance and timeliness of regularly produced financial information, as well as to give clients a better understanding of the drivers of performance and profitability in their businesses. Brian has conducted this work for clients directly and on behalf of organisations such as banks and Invest Northern Ireland.
Brian has managed the delivery of a number of FGS McClure Watters’ public sector audit engagements and has experience of leading audit teams as audit senior in the audits of large, medium and small private companies and Government agencies with trading accounts and large corporate groups. This work has given him a strong background in assessing systems of internal control.
Helen Jamison
Helen has been a youth and community worker for 8 years. Previous Employment includes Pool Life Guard Trainer Assessor for Belfast City Council. She is currently employed by Belfast City Council as an Assistant Community Development Officer.
She has a wide variety of Community work qualifications including 15 Sports qualifications which include, Grass-roots football, Level One Football, GAA Fundamentals, Quick Cricket, Tag Rugby etc.
Other qualifications include, Community Safety Practitioner - Cert HE, Community Development Practitioner- Cert HE, N.L.P Practitioner , N.L.P Practitioner in Time Line Therapy
N.L.P Practitioner in Hypnosis, Drama and Film Facilitator in community, Fitness Instructor.
Since 2003 Helen has been involved in a wide variety of community arts projects with children and young people, working in conjunction with The Lyric Theatre, Creative Media Partnerships, The MAC and Cinemagic. She is very aware of the extremely positive effects engagement with the arts can have on young people and intends to keep developing this aspect of her career.
Chris Bailey
Chris Bailey has been Director at the Northern Ireland Museums Council since June 2001. He has overall responsibility for the management of the Council and is the designated Accounting Officer for NIMC, being accountable to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Previously at Belfast City Council, as Arts and Heritage Manager, his work focused on developing the Council's arts and heritage policies and cultural strategies. Prior to joining the Council he worked in various local authorities, and managed and curated a range of arts venues and galleries. He has a wide range of experience of cultural activity at home and abroad and has served on the Boards of various museum and arts bodies, including the Museums Association and the International Council on Museums (UK).
Kathy Hayes
Returning to Belfast after a period of 18 years working primarily in Glasgow but also a number of other locations across the UK, Kathy has worked for a range of companies in the creation and delivery of arts and cultural events, from site specific environmental installations and performances with NVA, City-wide festivals and celebrations with UZ Events and cultural tourism initiatives with EventScotland.
Recently, Kathy has been working at The MAC, Belfast’s new flagship home of the arts, managing and monitoring strategic planning and implementation across a range of areas including the programming of live events, and monitoring visual arts and community engagement programmes and activities.
Kathy is now working on a series of activities to develop, implement and manage the strategic plans around the positioning of The MAC as a key player within the creative industries sector and as a destination for cultural and business tourism.
Kathy graduated with an MA in History of art and has post-graduate qualifications in Business and information technology.
Michelle Young
Michelle Young was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone and is currently employed at Queen’s University, Belfast where she is working as a lecturer in Drama while completing a practice based PhD in the fields of site-specific performance and oral history. After completing a BA Honours degree in Drama and English in York, Michelle trained at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, and has worked as an actor, practitioner, director and teacher in Dublin, London and Belfast. Awarded an MA, with distinction in Drama and Performance Studies from Queen’s in 2008, Michelle has worked as an Assistant Director at the Lyric Drama Studio and as Company Manager for UAYD.
She is a founder of the Belfast/Sarajevo Initiative, an ongoing collaborative project which seeks to create and facilitate a creative dialogue between the two cities, in conjunction with Queen’s and the Academy of Performing Arts, Sarajevo. She has organised conferences and workshops in Belfast and Sarajevo, showcasing the work of artists, photographers and film makers from both cities, and she has performed in, produced and presented work at Sarajevo’s Memory Module, a yearly event that is part of Bosnia’s prestigious MESS International Theatre Festival.
Most recently, Michelle has written and directed two site specific community theatre projects in her home town of Omagh and she is working towards publishing her research on the role of the arts in post-conflict societies.
