Hay Festival Global Chair of Trustees Caroline Michel has today announced the appointment of Professor Dame Elan Closs Stephens to the charity’s Board.

Dame Elan is an experienced non-executive director who has spent a career in broadcasting, the creative industries and academia. She has been a member of the BBC’s governing body since 2010 and was the BBC’s Acting Chair 2023/24. She also served two terms as Chair of S4C. She was a Professor and Head of Department at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Theatre Film and Television Studies and is the University’s Pro Chancellor. She is currently the Electoral Commissioner for Wales.

Educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, a comprehensive school in the quarry valleys of North Wales, Dame Elan won an open scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford. She is a native Welsh speaker and lives in Aberystwyth. 

Hay Festival, one of the world’s leading cultural charities, was founded in Hay-on-Wye, Wales in 1987, providing audiences with dynamic platforms to come together to share ideas, different perspectives and provoke conversations that can create a better world. 

Dame Elan joins fellow Trustees including farmer, ceramicist and film producer Corisande Albert; international lawyer Victoria Bejarano; journalist and campaigner Baroness Rosie Boycott; economist Nick Butler; business leader Geraint Davies; arts leader and digital specialist Tony Followell; tech investor Suhair Khan; historian, writer and broadcaster David Olusoga; business leader Ed Shedd; digital content specialist Shakia Stewart; writer and lawyer Philippe Sands KC; with Chair literary agent Caroline Michel. 

Hay Festival Global Chair Caroline Michel said: “As an international charity, we reach millions of people every year through our one-of-a-kind Festivals, Forums, programmes, and digital platforms.

“As we adapt and develop to our changing world, we are delighted to welcome Professor Dame Elan Closs Stephens to our Board of Trustees where her experience of the cultural landscape in Wales, nationally and beyond will be invaluable.”

Professor Dame Elan Closs Stephens said: “I am delighted to be joining the Hay Festival board in this new chapter for the charity.

“Over many years, I have seen first-hand the positive impact Hay Festival has had in communities across Wales and the wider world. Hay Festival is a platform for exchanging ideas and sharing thoughts – a platform that is needed now more than ever before.”

Today’s announcement comes on the back of recent Hay Festival expansion with a renewed partnership with Lviv BookForum in Ukraine; a growing programme around Hay Festival Forum Dallas in the USA; year-round After Hours events in cities across the UK, supported by a new multi-year funding agreement with the Unwin Charitable Trust; a revived Hay Festival Book Club; plus national funding investments in the core charity.  

Next week, programming for Hay Festival Education’s Scribblers Cymraeg will be unveiled, while later this month the full programme for Hay Festival Hay-on-Wye Winter Weekend will be announced.