Minutes of a meeting of the Board held on Friday 11 July 2025
Present
John Booth CVO FSA (Chair)
Diana Berry
Sir John Kingman KCB FRS
James Lambert OBE
David Marks
Dounia Nadar
Tonya Nelson
Stuart Roden
Professor Patricia Rubin
Professor Dame Molly Stevens DBE FRS FREng
Apologies
Catherine Goodman CBE LVO
Andrew Marr
Rosalind Nashashibi
In attendance
Sir Gabriele Finaldi - Director
Paul Gray - Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer
Victoria Hayes - Secretary to the Board and Head of Governance (Minutes)
Andy Hibbert - Chief Financial Officer
Jane Knowles - Director of Public Engagement
Anh Nguyen - Director of Development
Susan Noonan - Chief Commercial Officer, National Gallery Global Ltd
Christine Riding - Director of Collections and Research
John Stack - Director of Digital Innovation and Technology
Alasdair Travers - Design Partner, Purcell
1. Declarations of Interest:
1.1. The Chairman said that he had been appointed a Trustee of the Julia Rausing Foundation and had also been appointed as Chair of the Royal Drawing School.
1.2. Given the nature of the work undertaken by his company, a Trustee declared a general interest in the design competition process and said that he would make specific declarations of interest where relevant, which would be minuted.
2. Approvals:
2.1. The Minutes from the meeting held on 22 May were approved. There were no matters arising.
2.2. The Loans Out paper was approved.
3. Annual Report and Accounts, Report from the Audit Committee and Risk Register:
3.1. The Chief Financial Officer presented the papers. The Board endorsed the Audit Committee’s approval of the Annual Report and Accounts, the Report from the Audit Committee and the Risk Register.
4. Questions on the Director’s Report:
4.1. The Director said that visitor numbers were steadily increasing, and the Sainsbury Wing entrance was performing very well indeed.
4.2. There were no questions on the Director’s Report.
5. Presentation on the Design Competition:
5.1-5.2. Information has been excluded under s.22, s.36 and s.43 FOI 2000.
5.3. The Design Partner from Purcell gave his presentation. He reminded the Board that the redevelopment of Saint Vincent House (SVH) had been in discussion for a number of years and could be a very interesting addition to the Gallery.
6. Presentation on the modern painting collections development strategy:
6.1. The Director of Collections and Research gave a presentation.
6.2-6.5. Information has been excluded under s.22, s.36 and s.43 FOI 2000.
7. AOB
7.1. The Deputy Chair said that DCMS had recently announced the re-appointment of the Chairman as a Trustee for 4 years. The Board unanimously agreed that he should continue as Chairman of the Gallery.
John Booth
Chair