Joanna Baker

Joanna Baker has been the Managing Director and Company Secretary of the Edinburgh International Festival since 2006. She joined the Festival in 1992 as Marketing and Public Affairs Director and over the past 17 years has played a major role in helping to establish collaborative working initiatives in Edinburgh and further afield, including the setting up of TAB - an audience development agency for the cultural sector - and Festivals Edinburgh, which she chaired for its first three years. Between 1983 and 1992 she worked for Welsh National Opera, Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet and the National Theatre in London. Public/voluntary appointments include serving as a member of the Scottish Arts Council from 2000 – 2006, chairing its Dance Committee from 2000 – 2004 and serving as Vice Chair in 2005/2006. She is a member of the Court of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh and on the boards of Festivals Edinburgh and the Festival City Theatres Trust. She is a former board member of Scottish Ballet and of BAFA (the British Arts Festivals Association). Joanna grew up in Cornwall, and has a degree in French with European Studies from the University of Sussex.