Stephen Hetherington was co-founder and Chairman of HQ Theatres and founder of The OHMI Trust. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, playing with a number of leading UK orchestras, before moving on to present theatre, opera, ballet and orchestras with his company, Hetherington Seelig. He led the development of Britain’s largest tri-Lottery funded project, The Lowry, for which he acted as Chief Executive from its early conception until the formal opening by the Queen and Prince Philip in 2001. He has a PhD from the University of Birmingham on the political rationales of British cultural policy. He was made an MBE in 2017.