Meet the Founding Partners
Sarah Polden
Hugh’s wife and commissioning editor
Sarah was a Commissioning Editor of non-fiction books for Mitchell Beazley, Reader’s Digest and Bloomsbury Publishing, working across a range of subjects.
She was introduced to Hugh by another of the Foundation’s Founding Partners, Nicky Sargent.
Anya Hindmarch
Founder and CEO of Anya Hindmarch, luxury bags and accessories
Dame Anya Hindmarch founded her business in London in 1987 and it has since grown into a global brand. Today, it is known for its luxury, organisation-obsessed accessories, groundbreaking work in sustainability and playful experiential retail concepts. Creativity, modern craftsmanship and personalisation sit at the heart of everything Anya Hindmarch does.
Committed to creating responsibly, the brand constantly strives to innovate to reduce its impact on the Earth and drive education and discussion around sustainability, paying heed to the mantra, “progress, not perfection”.
A passionate advocate of British design and arts, Anya is a Trustee of Tate and an Emeritus Trustee of both the Royal Academy of Arts and the Design Museum. She has been a Non-executive Director of the British Fashion Council, a Business Ambassador, Governor of UAL, and an adviser to the Board of Trade, and is the recipient of several notable industry awards. In 2021, Anya published her first book, If In Doubt Wash Your Hair.
Charlotte Tilbury
President, Chairman, and Chief Creative Officer and Founder of Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, luxury makeup
Sitting at the helm of the brand she founded in 2013, Charlotte Tilbury MBE is a unique multi-faceted leader and entrepreneur, bringing together deep expertise across product, design, digital, beauty technology, commercial, financial, marketing, creative and strategy, alongside a consumer-centric obsession to inform every decision she makes.
A global beauty pioneer, Charlotte has built the largest tri-axis British beauty empire of all time, and has scaled it globally, with a record-breaking beauty brand that combines her passion for science, her vision for beauty tech and AI, and her renowned makeup artistry skills.
Charlotte Tilbury Beauty is the #1 prestige makeup brand in the UK, with a presence in 57 global markets, more than 5,000 points of distribution worldwide. Her multi-faceted creative and commercial leadership has led to the development of some of the most iconic hero products in beauty, creating global number ones around the world.
Graham Webster
Partner at Withers, international law firm
Graham is a corporate law partner at Withers, and he co-chairs the firm's global luxury brands, fashion and creatives group.
With a background in private equity, Graham focuses on acting for founders, families and businesses where creativity and innovation is the primary value creator. He advises on a broad range of UK and international corporate transactions including M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions), early stage development capital and joint ventures.
Sarah Mower
Chief Critic Vogue Runway; British Fashion Council Ambassador for Emerging Talent and Chair of BFC NEWGEN Committee
Sarah Mower MBE is a renowned fashion journalist and Chief Critic for Vogue Runway. An ardent advocate for young designers, Sarah is the British Fashion Council's Ambassador for Emerging Talent and Chair of the BFC NEWGEN Committee, a scheme that has launched the careers of many acclaimed designers including Christopher Kane, Mary Katrantzou, JW Anderson, Roksanda Ilincic, Simone Rocha, Grace Wales Bonner and Craig Green.
A tireless champion of fashion education, Sarah co-founded and chairs the BFC Foundation Scholarship Committee and advised The King’s Foundation on the inception of His Majesty’s Future Textiles educational outreach programme. She is an adviser to the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, Visiting Professor at Central Saint Martins, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art, and Honorary Doctor at the University of Westminster and at the Arts University of San Francisco.
In 2023, Sarah received a Special Recognition Award for supporting young designers at the BFC Fashion Awards. Her exhibition, “Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion” (2023), celebrated over 100 designers whose careers started with the NEWGEN scheme, beginning with Alexander McQueen in 1992.
Sarah relied on Hugh Devlin’s discreet generosity as the top legal adviser who immediately responded, pro-bono, to young designers, both in emergencies and in arranging advantageous contracts which cemented their futures in the wider fashion industry.
Christopher and Tammy Kane
Co-Founders and Creative Directors, Christopher Kane; Christopher is Creative Director for Womenswear at Mulberry
Christopher Kane is an award-winning British fashion designer and co-founder of the Christopher Kane brand, established with his sister Tammy Kane after graduating with distinction from Central Saint Martins in London. Since debuting his Spring/Summer 2007 collection, he has become widely recognised as one of the leading voices in modern British fashion, known for combining innovation with a deep respect for craft and design. Christopher and Tammy have worked closely together since founding their label, with their creative partnership remaining at the heart of their work.
Since launching the brand in 2006, Christopher has received numerous industry honours, recognising his contribution to British fashion. These include New Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2007, the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund in 2011, and Womenswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2013.
In 2026, Christopher was appointed Creative Director for Womenswear at Mulberry, where he and Tammy continue to collaborate.
Alongside their work in fashion, Christopher and Tammy also created More Joy, a lifestyle project centred around positivity, openness and cultural conversation, extending their creative language beyond the traditional fashion system.
Sam McKnight
Hairstylist, Founder of Hair by Sam McKnight
For over four decades, hair stylist Sam McKnight MBE has been at the forefront of fashion, beauty and editorial styling as one of the world's most influential image makers.
Sam played a crucial role in transforming fashion into a global phenomenon during the 1980s Supermodel era, emphasising the individuality of each woman. He was the personal stylist of Diana, Princess of Wales, creating the celebrated short hairstyle captured in her famous 1990 Patrick Demarchelier cover shoot for British Vogue.
In 2016, the major exhibition “Hair by Sam McKnight” ran for six months at Somerset House, London. This and the accompanying book highlighted Sam’s extraordinary contribution to the world of fashion and hair and showcased his collaborations with high-profile models, photographers and designers like Kate Moss, Nick Knight and Chanel. It is also the name of Sam’s award-winning haircare brand, launched in 2017. The collection is the culmination of his accumulated knowledge and experience, injecting fashion, glamour and ease into haircare and styling.
Sian Westerman
Adviser in financial strategy; Board Member of the British Fashion Council
Sian is an experienced non-executive director. She is Chair of Strathberry Ltd, a fast growing, private equity-backed and founder-led handbag business, and also Chair of Fenwick Ltd, the regional department-store business. She has and has had a range of non-executive roles in retail, fashion and beauty including Augustinus Bader Skin Care, Lyma Life, Anya Hindmarch, Nicholas Kirkwood, Roksanda and FaceGym. In addition, she is a Senior Adviser at Rothschild & Co Global Advisory Division. Sian also sits on the European Advisory Board of Brown Advisory, the Baltimore-based wealth management business. She is a Non-executive Director and the Senior independent Director (SID) of the FTSE 250-listed company Shaftesbury Capital PLC.
Sian is a Non-executive Director of the British Fashion Council, a Trustee of The Barbican Centre Trust and a member of the Corporate Advisory Group of the Royal Academy of Arts.
Graham Southern
Founder of Southern & Partners, artist management
Throughout his career, Graham Southern’s primary focus has been on his relationships with artists. He started his career at Christie’s auction house in 1985 in the Modern British Department before becoming a director in 1990 and later establishing the Post-war and Contemporary British Art Department in 1996. He left Christie’s in 2001 to join Anthony d’Offay as a Director. In 2002, he co-founded Haunch of Venison and subsequently Blain|Southern, leaving in 2019 to establish Southern & Partners, an artist management business that works closely with artists and artist estates on long-term career development, institutional positioning and legacy planning.
Graham has been a trustee of Art UK since 2009, a member of the Advisory Group of Christie’s Education and was formerly Chair of the Independent Assessment Board at the Royal Drawing School (2015-19). He is a patron of Artangel and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of London Art Dealers, with two terms serving as Deputy Chairman.
Nicky Sargent
Co-founder of The Farm Group; Trustee and Director of The Big Group, digital and events agency
Nicky Sargent has had a wide-ranging career in media, working in advertising, publishing and television post-production. She was CEO of Molinare and board director of The Television Corporation PLC before co-founding The Farm Group in 1998, which grew to be one of the world’s largest post-production companies, responsible for editing, sound and VFX work on many thousands of hours of high-end television productions.
Nicky was awarded the Women in Film & Television business award in 2012 and in 2020 was honoured by BAFTA with a Special Award for services to the industry, in recognition of her championing equality and diversity in the TV sector.
Having sold The Farm Group in 2019, Nicky is now a trustee and director of The Big Group, a digital and events agency. She has also worked with Unfold, as a mentor to asylum-seeking women. She is an active member of BAFTA and has written three novels.
Edward Barber
Co-founder of Barber Osgerby, industrial, interior and product design
The career of Edward Barber OBE is inextricably linked with that of Jay Osgerby OBE. They founded their award-winning studio in 1996, after studying architecture together at the Royal College of Art, London. For three decades their innovative work has challenged the boundaries of design, reflecting the marriage of industrial processes and new technologies with craftsmanship and an affinity with fine art.
The duo also founded the design consultancies Universal Design Studio in 2001 and Map Project Office in 2012. The diversity of their collaborations and output encompasses architecture, interiors, sculpture and product and exhibition design, from the iconic Loop Table (1996) for Isokon, to the 2012 London Olympic Torch and a £2 coin commissioned to commemorate the 150th anniversary of London Underground. Barber Osgerby, Projects was published in 2017, celebrating the designers’ first 20 years of practice, and examples of their work is held in major international museums.
Edward and Jay strongly support the development of new generations of designers through lecturing, workshops and their studio practice.
Photo credit: Mark Cocksedge
Lucy Yeomans
Editor-in-Chief, Founder & CEO of DREST, interactive high-fashion digital styling platform
Lucy Yeomans has spent her career at the centre of fashion. She was the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar UK for 13 years, redefining the magazine for a modern readership. At Net-a-Porter she developed an editorial vision, launching the Porter media brand which included a print and digital magazine and a daily news channel, that turned the platform into a global benchmark for future-facing publishing and e-commerce. Both tenures highlighted her ability to set new standards for how fashion communicates with its audience.
Lucy recognised that the future lay not only in telling stories about fashion, but in serving a digitally-native audience and providing an experience that promoted self-expression and creativity. DREST was born from that belief. Fusing her knowledge of publishing with an interest in the interactivity and reach of a gamified experience, Lucy has created a luxury platform that invites people to discover the world’s top luxury brands and their products in an immersive and powerfully engaging way.
Olya Kuryshchuk
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of 1 Granary, the global platform for fashion designers and design education
Olya Kuryshchuk is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 1 Granary, the global platform for fashion designers and design education. Through its print, digital content, events, recruitment, and brand development programmes, 1 Granary is reshaping the industry and designers’ role within it. Olya is one of the industry’s leading experts in scouting talent, developing designers and building brands. She is also an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins and a regular jury member at international design competitions.
Jade Mitchell
Manager of the Hugh Devlin Foundation; Founder of Blank Canvas Coaching
For over 25 years, Jade has worked at the intersection of art, business and personal development, providing professional collaboration, strategy and support to creative businesses and individuals.
Before setting up Blank Canvas Coaching, a coaching practice tailored to creatives, she worked as Studio Director for Jonathan Yeo, one of the world’s most prominent portraitists, and as Head of Artist Management for Haunch of Venison, a leading blue-chip gallery. For high-profile artists, she has led complex projects in collaboration with museums, institutions and brands such as Google and Netflix.
Jade is passionate about empowering creative talent, coaching on strategy and mindset to sustain careers. She brings a blend of strategic acumen, insight and deep care for people and their objectives to her role as Manager of the Hugh Devlin Foundation.