Directors

David Powell
david.powell@dpa-ltd.co.uk
David brings experience as a cultural practitioner, researcher, catalyst and cultural leader to DPA’s basket of skills and expertise. David set up DPA in 1991, building on earlier experience as one of the Directors of Inter-Action, the national arts, media and development organisation, and managing social, leisure and cultural infrastructure investment for London Docklands Development Corporation.

Since then, David has directed dozens of reviews, studies and projects under development, leading teams, investigating and influencing the local and regional cultural ecology and creative economy and helping deliver new and improved cultural buildings and organisations.

David is a board member of Film Video Umbrella and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has been a member of the curators’ panel for the Creative Clusters conference for some years. He is Visiting Professor in Cultural Planning for London East Research Institute (LERI) at University of East London and Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at Department of Cultural & Policy Management, at City University, London.

Debra Reay
debra.reay@dpa-ltd.co.uk
Debra is a long experienced arts consultant and senior manager, who has worked widely on culture and regeneration issues, including recent projects for Thames Gateway London Partnership, Government Office for the South East and Surrey County Council.

With DPA, she worked widely including Thames Gateway London, the Host Boroughs Joint Cultural Framework (she is co-directing the Thames Gateway Cultural Forum), and projects in Cambridgeshire and Somerset. Until 2003 she was Deputy Chief Executive of South East Arts, and before that she managed cultural programmes for Tyne and Wear DC, Lee Valley Regional Park and Cultural Partnerships.