Rambert appoints Rebecca Hanna-Grindall as Chief Executive

Saxton Bampfylde are pleased to have supported the appointment of Rebecca Hanna-Grindall as Chief Executive of Rambert. She will join in January 2027, succeeding Helen Shute as the company begins its second century.

Rebecca has spent the past 15 years at Southbank Centre, where she has been Director of Arts Planning and Producing since 2020. In that role she has helped shape a programme of more than 1,300 live events each year, alongside festivals, commissions and large-scale multidisciplinary work. Her producing credits include Meltdown, Unlimited, London Literature Festival, Women of the World and Africa Utopia. She also worked with Rambert and (LA)HORDE on the 2025 immersive installation We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon, so she arrives knowing the company from the inside of a rehearsal room as well as the outside of a programme.

Earlier in a career spanning more than two decades, she held roles at the Royal Court Theatre, the BBC and Fuel.

Rebecca said she was delighted and honoured to be joining Rambert, and sees the role as a chance to build on Marie Rambert’s legacy of “curiosity and reinvention”. Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer said he was excited to work with her as the company imagines its future.

Helen Shute leaves Rambert today after nearly a decade to become Chief Executive of English National Opera. Rambert’s Senior Executive Team will lead the company collectively until Rebecca takes up her post, shortly before the world premiere of It’s a Sin, inspired by Russell T Davies’s Channel 4 drama, in February.