PRESS RELEASE : Three Trustees reappointed to the National Portrait Gallery

Marcus Harling

Reappointed for a 4 year term commencing 01 November 2022.

Marcus Harling brings a wide range of experience in the procurement and delivery of development projects of all types. As a lawyer, Marcus has advised clients including The Crown Estate, The UK Atomic Energy Authority  and The Greater London Authority on the delivery of development and infrastructure projects.

Marcus is a Non-Executive Member of the Sponsor Board for the Norman Shaw North project, at the Palace of Westminster, Partner in law firm Burges Salmon and provides consultancy to public and private sector organisations on construction, infrastructure and regeneration projects. With a track record of advising arts and heritage projects, Marcus has taken an active role in supporting the current redevelopment of The National Portrait Gallery.

Marcus is a member of the National Portrait Gallery Audit and Risk Sub-Committee and Inspiring People Project Board.

Professor Shearer West

Reappointed for a 4 year term commencing 01 November 2022.

Professor Shearer West, CBE is Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Nottingham.

She has held a number of significant leadership roles in higher education, including Head of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham, Head of the Humanities Division at Oxford University and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sheffield.  She was also Director of Research at the Arts and Humanities Research Council where she chaired the Research Directors Group for Research Councils UK (now UKRI).

She is a Professor of Art History and has authored and edited many articles and nine books including Portraiture; The visual arts in Germany 1897-1940; and Fin de Siècle: Art and society in an age of uncertainty. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Historical Society, and has held two visiting Fellowships at Yale University.  She was awarded a CBE in the 2021 Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.

Shearer also has held a number of international research roles, including acting as main panel chair for the Norwegian research assessment exercise for Humanities, representing the UK on the Science Europe Humanities Scientific Committee, and acting as jurist for the Spinoza Prize in the Netherlands and the Odysseus and Solvay prizes in Belgium.

Jonathan Yeo

Reappointed for a 4 year term commencing 01 November 2022.

Jonathan Yeo (b. London 1970) is one of the world’s leading portraitists and has exhibited widely in both the UK and abroad. His sitters include such diverse figures as Sir David Attenborough, Malala Yousafzai, Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, Idris Elba, Nicole Kidman, Baroness Lawrence, Tony Blair and The Duke of Edinburgh. Known for both traditional and experimental portraiture, his work has been the subject of mid-career surveys at the Museum of National History in Denmark (2016), the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle (2014-15), the Lowry in Greater Manchester (2014) and the National Portrait Gallery in London (2013). In 2018, Yeo exhibited a series of works at the Royal Academy of Arts in London all derived from new technologies, including the first bronze sculpture to be made using an innovative combination of processes, including 3D scanning, virtual reality and 3D printing. Other recent projects include collaborations with the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC and The Bowes Museum in County Durham. In 2018 he was named Artist of the Year by GQ Magazine.

Remuneration and Governance Code

Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery are not remunerated. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Marcus Harling, Professor Shearer West and Jonathan Yeo have not declared any significant political activity.