NOISE is a registered charity, that is a not-for-profit organisation set up for the benefit of the community, to give direct help, advice or support to people in various kinds of needs. NOISE works to gain media exposure for the most talented young people from any educational background, who may not have connections within the creative industries.

The NOISE Charity Trustees, i.e. the people who serve on the governing body of the charity, are responsible for controlling the management and administration of the charity to ensure that the organisation delivers the charitable outcomes for which it has been set up.

The NOISE board has a broad range of leading industry professionals across media, law and finance who bring their extensive experience to help NOISE deliver the first cross-media festival. Together, with the NOISE team, we look to deliver the best possible opportunities for young people across the UK and Europe.

Pat Lawless, MBA,
NOISE Festival Charity Chairman,
NOISE Festival Ltd. Director

Pat Lawless is Chief Executive of ESR Technology.
Pat Lawless was previously CEO of Bureau Veritas' operation in the UK and Ireland. He brings a wealth of experience of the sectors served by ESR Technology and has a special interest in the oil and gas and aviation industries.
Before Bureau Veritas, he undertook senior roles in PricewaterhouseCoopers, Barclays and Thales. His earlier career included service in the British Army, from which he retired as a Brigadier General, and the former Rhodesian Army. He holds an MBA from Manchester Business School and is a Chartered Director.

Denise Proctor, NOISE CEO

Denise Proctor, NOISE CEO and Charity Trustee is recognised within the music industry as the figure who pioneered the single music download revolution, ten years before it became industry standard. Denise setup NOISE in 2004 with a view to finding the funding, sponsors and media partners to deliver a whole range of unique projects that make up the NOISE festival.

Denise comes from a highly successful background in online initiatives having set up PWP, one of the first UK interactive design companies that created the world's first interactive music CDrom with video. PWP went onto win a plethora of awards including "Best Web Design" for the Manic Street Preachers (Sony) and 'The Times' Award for E-Commerce. Denise also worked with Lord David Puttnam in the setting up of NESTA Futurelab bringing together the games and education industries, and with AIM (Association of Independent Music) to establish an E-Commerce strategy for UK independent music labels.

Denise has directed a host of music videos (including No.1 selling artists), adverts, television titles and documentary pieces for BBC television, ARD and SFDRS. She has a BA from New York University and St. Martins School of Art, an MA in film directing from the Royal College of Art and an MBA in finance at Manchester Business School.

Peter Atkinson
Peter is Course Leader for Film and Media Studies at University of Central Lancashire in the world-renowned School of Journalism, Media and Communication. Having been appointed as a Realistic Work Environment Manager in the HEFCE-funded Centre for Employability through the Humanities at UCLan, during the past four years he has have been able to engage with issues of developing employability in the HE curriculum. Peter has a doctorate on the subject of cultural representations of Northern England in broadcasting, contributed papers at international conferences and is about to have this work published in several international publications.

Peter is a former media worker in London, and participant in the London club scene of the early 1980s, he moved on to work in arts management at one of the country’s top arts centres. Here he discovered that he had a real commitment to enabling young people to realise their creative potential and aspirations. Forming partnerships with a variety of stakeholders he helped young people stage their own music events, founded a youth magazine and created and gained media coverage for a young break dance group.

“A lover of urban culture I have in the past three years been totally seduced by Manchester and have begun my own cultural mapping of the delights the city’s close-knit, welcoming and culturally and commercially dynamic geography.”

Margaret Bruce
Margaret is Professor of Design Management and Marketing at Manchester Business School.

She has been a Fulbright scholar at Harvard Business School and currently holds Professorships at the University of the Arts in London, ICN, University of Nancy, France and an Hononary Professor at Xi'an Institute of Science and Technology, China. Professor Bruce is Chair of Directors' of Research Network (DoRN) and a member of Council of the British Academy of Management (BAM), a panel member of AHRC and on the Advisory Board of Nesta's Graduate Pioneer Programme. She has carried out consultancy and been an advisor to a number of blue chip organisations, including CBI, DTI, Design Council, NHS, SSL International, Lloyds TSB, GB Systems and McCann Ericsson. She was Director of the Centre of Business Research and managed £1million of sponsored research.