The TRC Board

A team of influential figures from the broadcast and digital sectors who bring a wealth of expertise to the work of TRC.

Jane Muirhead

Chair of the TRC Board of Directors

Managing Director, Raise the Roof Productions (RTRP Ltd.) & Vice Chair, Pact Council

As co-founder and Managing Director, Jane is responsible for Raise the Roof’s strategic direction and the running of the company. Throughout its 8 years, the company has been recognised as one of the fastest growing Indies in the UK, delivering almost 450 hours of network TV and selling to over 40 countries worldwide.

Popular brands include Kirstie’s Fill Your House for Free, Holiday of My lifetime with Len Goodman and Kirstie and Phil’s Love it or List it. Under Jane’s leadership, the company featured in the industry bible Broadcast, as one of the top 20 Best Places to Work in TV in 2016 and 2017.

Jane works tirelessly to champion television production; serving six years as National Director for Scotland on Pact Council (the U.K. wide trade body representing the Indie sector) and chairing the Scottish TV Working Group. She currently sits on a number of industry steering groups including the Screen Sector Leadership Group. Jane also sits on Creative Skillsets TV Funding Committee and is Chair of the Royal Television Society, Scotland. She also holds an Honorary Professorship from Stirling University. Jane has also been invited to give evidence to parliamentary committees and actively engages with the Scottish and UK governments on issues affecting the industry.

Jane is passionate about skills and the development of the next generation of talent. She encourages all staff at RTRP to engage and work collaboratively with local community groups, schools and further and higher education establishments to help ensure the Scottish sector attracts and nurtures a diverse talent pool, ready to produce the best, world-class content.

Norma Wisnevitz

COO at True North

Norma brings over twenty years of television production experience to her role as COO at Leeds based, True North. Having come from Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund where she invested in a successful portfolio of companies, Norma now works closely with True North’s Creative Directors to steer the company through its next phase of growth.

Before Channel 4, Norma was Finance Director at international television production company, Optomen Television, where she helped grow the business and sell it to All3Media. Her career in the UK began at Talkback Productions (Fremantlemedia). She is originally from South Africa and is a CIMA qualified accountant.

Jane Kelly headshot

Jane Kelly

Creative Director at Big Mountain

Jane has created, developed and Executive Produced award winning factual entertainment formats that have sold internationally at Big Mountain including Genealogy Roadshow for PBS, Roomies for FYI, Pet Nation for BBC, So Fleeked Up, Extreme Makeovers: On Fleek, My Family Secrets Revealed, Ireland with Ardal O’Hanlon and Addict’s Symphony for Channel 4 and Wild Ireland for ITV1.

Jane specializes in creating audience-winning new hybrids for TV, bringing new and exciting talent to screen and building top teams to develop and deliver to broadcasters, all from Big Mountain’s Northern Ireland base. In December 2020 Jane was elected to Pact Council, where she serves as National Representative for Northern Ireland.

Kieran Doherty

CEO and Co-Founder of Stellify Media

Kieran Doherty is a Northern Irish writer, TV Format Creator, Executive Producer and Public Speaker. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Stellify Media, alongside his creative and business partner, Matthew Worthy.

Together they have co-created multiple entertainment formats including international formats Secret Fortune and Take the Money and Run. In 2014 they launched Belfast based production company Stellify Media as a joint venture with Sony Pictures Television.

Stellify Media is an award-winning company and is best known for successfully rebooting Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? with Jeremy Clarkson for ITV and Blind Date with Paul O’Grady for Channel 5.

And following a successful 12 months which saw them win a Channel 4 lockdown commission with Celebrity Snoop Dogs, 2021 looks set to continue as they move into Drama with the launch of a Scripted division.

Doherty has previously served as PACT Director for Northern Ireland and Chair of the Royal Television Society Northern Ireland. He is currently on the steering committee for The Belfast Media festival and is also a founding member of the Media Therapy Group, the largest networking group in Ireland.

Nia Thomas

Managing Director of Boom Cymru

Nia Thomas is Managing Director of Cardiff based Boom, one of Wales’s largest, indigenous production groups. Employing c.180 staff and producing c.400 hours of multi-genre content per annum, the Boom group of companies is part of ITV Studios and operates in a variety of sectors, including production (Boom, Boom Kids and Oxford Scientific Films), post-production facilities (Gorilla) and visual effects (Bait Studio).

Nia is responsible for overseeing Boom group’s multidisciplinary operations and her production experience spans a variety of genres, including children’s, entertainment, factual, music and events. She is a board member of TAC, the membership body representing independent production companies in Wales, and Screen Alliance Wales, the not-for-profit organisation that promotes the talent, crew and services of the Welsh film and TV industry. She also sits on the steering boards of Factual Fastrack Wales and Clwstwr Creadigol (The Creative Industries Clusters Programme).

Andrew Chitty

Creative Economy Champion at Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Andrew Chitty has three decades of experience in the creative industries, with a career spanning across television and digital. In January 2017 he became the first ever Creative Economy Champion for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, working to foster partnerships between academics and the rapidly growing creative industry in the UK. He is professor of Creative and Digital Media at the Royal Holloway, University of London and Director of the business advisory network Cranehill, which provides practical, specialist advice to high growth SME’s in the creative and digital sector.

In 1998 he founded multi-BAFTA award winner Illumina Digital, one of the UK’s leading convergent media producers, established to develop new forms of interactive content and services from TV to the web, real world installations to mobile channels.

Prior to founding Illumina, Andrew pioneered the combination of television production with interactive media while editing the BBC series, ‘The Net’ and as an award-winning creative producer for Granada Education, Channel 4 Schools, Microsoft Network and BBC Science.

Andrew is former Vice Chair of the producers’ trade body PACT, a board member of Creative Skillset, and a founding director of Creative England.

Dawn Beresford

Director of Talent, Commissioning at BBC

Dawn Beresford is Director of Talent, Commissioning at the BBC, developing and leading plans to drive the strategy for commissioning roles at the BBC, working closely with the Senior creative team, along with Indie Relations, Resourcing and Creative Diversity to support a holistic approach to off-screen talent across the Content group. Dawn also works with external partners to support the short and long-term health of skills and culture across the UK’s creative industries.

Previously Dawn was at independent producers CPL Productions and Arrow International Media, and has a huge range of experience across the media industry in roles across talent development, commissioning and production, as well as offering training and consultancy to a wide range of companies and bodies across TV and Radio.

Muslim Alim

Commissioning Editor at BBC

Muslim has been with the BBC for 21 years producing award-winning content across Radio, TV and Digital. Starting as a Researcher in Ents he went on to produce programmes for BBC Radio 1 and was the co-creator of digital youth brand BBC The Social where he commissioned multi-genre content including partnerships with News, a YouTube drama set in Edinburgh and a slew of viral hits across a social media portfolio.

He joined the BBC Daytime commissioning team 6 years ago and looks after some of the department’s longstanding titles including ‘Homes Under The Hammer’ and ‘Antiques Road Trip’ alongside new commissions such as ‘The Travelling Auctioneers’ and ‘Clive Myrie’s Italian Road Trip’ – he is also Nations lead for BBC Daytime in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Alongside his day-to-day role as Commissioning Editor, Muslim is keen on discovering how evolving audience behaviours and new technologies can transform the landscape of content conception, production and distribution

Kevin Blacoe

Head of Partnerships & Skills at Channel 4

As Head of Partnerships & Skills, based at Channel 4’s National HQ in Leeds, Kevin plays a key role in delivering the 4 All the UK strategy, the biggest structural change in the broadcaster’s history. As part of this, he leads 4Skills which is Channel 4’s major commitment to skills, training and development in the creative industries, from work experience and apprenticeships through to progressing the careers of those already in the industry. Prior to Channel 4, he worked for 12 years at the BBC in London and Salford, most recently as Chief Adviser for BBC Education.