People | Alexandra Palace

Duncan Wilson

Chief Executive of Alexandra Park and Palace (APP)

Duncan Wilson is Chief Executive of Alexandra Palace and Park, one of London’s most iconic buildings. In addition to leading a successful business and overseeing the management of a 200 acre Park, Duncan is planning a major regeneration programme to bring the Palace back to its former glory.

Duncan came to Alexandra Palace from the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College where he was responsible for the maintenance of one of Europe’s finest and most extensive groups of Baroque buildings. In this position he also initiated a programme of major open air public events, chapel concerts and dinners in the Painted Hall. In March 2010 Duncan lead the Foundation’s opening of its new state-of-the-art interpretation and education centre for the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site: “Discover Greenwich”. The centre incorporates a working commercial micro-brewery on the site of the historic 1830’s Royal Hospital brewery.

Prior to 2002, Duncan worked at Somerset House Trust where he led a project to restore its public spaces and open the site to the public from 1997. Successes included the Courtyard, fountains and ice rink, the Admiralty restaurant Terrace café and sculpture exhibitions. Prior to his work at Somerset House Trust, he worked at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as head of Libraries Division for three years, and before that at Treasury, where he worked on the defence and industry desks.

Duncan is a chartered accountant and his first post-qualification job was as a Financial Controller at English Heritage. However, before accountancy he worked as a professional archaeologist and has a post-graduate degree in European Archaeology from Oxford University.

Over the past 10 years, Duncan has been a trustee of The Churches Conservation Trust (2008-present), a trustee of the Royal Armouries (2007-2011) and was a community governor of Corelli College (formally Kidbrooke Secondary School) from 2004-2007.

He was awarded the OBE for services to heritage in 2007.

Emma Dagnes

Commercial Director

Emma Dagnes is Commercial Director for Alexandra Palace and is responsible for the strategic direction and commercial success of the Palace’s trading company APTL. She also sits on the Palace’s Regeneration Working Group offering advice on the commercial opportunities and developments to realise the future potential of the Palace. Prior to her position as Commercial Director, Emma was the Sales, Events & Leisure Director. Under her leadership, these key areas of business were consolidated to achieve significant improvements to performance and profitability.

Emma has more than 10 years’ experience delivering profitable enterprises within the public and private sector. During her role with Lambeth Council she developed and directed the commercial strategy for Green & Open Spaces, delivering significant new revenue streams from filming, large scale events and festivals.

She re-aligned the Boroughs flagship event: the Lambeth Country Show, to reflect the organisations core priorities and objectives. As the Director of this 100,000 attendance event, Emma led a complex multi-agency operations Board to deliver a highly successful and celebrated annual event.

Following an early career in PR and Sports Marketing, Emma became a consultant advising global brands on maximising their commercial investment in sporting events through brand and sponsorship leverage. Example of consultancy clients included: Glaxo Smith Kline, Heineken during the Athens Olympics, 888.com sponsorship of World Snooker and Southcorp wines.

Nigel Watts

Director of Finance and Human Resources

Nigel was appointed as Director of Finance & Resources for both the Trust and the trading company in February 2012. He trained as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse and has extensive public and private sector experience. Previous roles include Finance Director of the Medical Research Council, Finance Director for a division of Willis, the insurance broking group, a management consultant with Deloitte specialising in public sector work and a management accountant at ICI.

Kerri Farnsworth

Director of Regeneration and Property

Kerri Farnsworth joined Alexandra Palace in April 2013 as the Director of Regeneration and Property. Responsible for overseeing the major rejuvenation of the Palace, Kerri will also provide strategic direction on the development of the Trust’s property strategy, including issues relating to commercial leases, landlord services and the strategic management of the Park.

Kerri has an extensive background in developing and delivering major development & regeneration initiatives in both the public and the private sector in several cities, including Manchester (city centre regeneration and the 2002 Commonwealth Games) and Liverpool (Lime Street Gateway and Hope Street). Kerri’s most recent major assignment was as Director of Development at the highly-sensitive 360-acre Maze Long Kesh site in Northern Ireland, where she led on all design, development and investment activities.

She has also worked on a consultancy basis across Europe and the Middle East, and is an active contributor to best practice on regeneration and cities, including as a RIBA design review panel member and an academician & assessor for the Academy of Urbanism.