Advertising chief Nicola Mendelsohn is to be the new chair of the Creative Industries Council, a group working with the government to identify the needs of sectors such as fashion, publishing and computer games.
She will be working alongside Culture Secretary Maria Miller and Business Secretary Vince Cable to build links between Westminster and industries ranging from television to video gaming, music and film.
Mrs Mendelsohn is executive chairman of the prominent advertising agency Karmarama and is currently the first female president of the trade body, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
She already divides her time with roles as a director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and as a chair of Women’s Aid.
“It makes life interesting,” the mother-of-four said of her busy schedule, adding that she was delighted at the appointment.
“The creative industries are a key area for growth, and an area we in the UK are really good at. We really are leading the world.”
The next Creative Industries Council meeting will take place in January.
Mrs Mendelsohn said her priorities would include looking at the digital skills needed to provide the creative workforce of the future, as well as issues such as IP protection for producers of creative content.
Access to finance and how to promote the creative sector to external investors would also be on the agenda.
“It’s really exciting,” she said.
Now living in Finchley, she was born in Manchester, where her mother, kosher caterer Celia Clyne is still based.
Mrs Mendelsohn studied English and drama at Leeds University. She is married to former Labour fundraiser, Jon Mendelsohn, the chairman of Kinloss, Finchley United Synagogue.
