Emily Benn has been elected as Chair of the Board of Governors of Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which is provided by the Corporation and widely regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious institutions for music and performing arts.
Emily Benn is an Executive at Hakluyt and Company, a global strategic advisory firm, and has been an investment banker at UBS, a think tank director, a festival director, and a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Aged just 17, Emily was selected as the youngest Parliamentary candidate in the UK’s history and subsequently stood in the 2010 and 2015 General Elections as a Labour candidate.
She started playing the violin aged five, and studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, and conducted the Oxford New Orchestra. She co-founded and leads the Statutory Instruments, the UK’s political String Quartet, and serves on the board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since 2022, she has been an elected Member of the City Corporation, representing the Bread Street Ward.
The Board of Governors for Guildhall School comprises elected members from the City Corporation and the School’s staff, the president of the School’s Student Union, the Principal of the School, Professor Jonathan Vaughan, and elected independent members from relevant professions.
Guildhall School is a vibrant, international community of musicians, actors and production artists in the heart of the . Ranked as number one in Arts, Drama & Music by the Complete University Guide 2025, one of the top five institutions in the world for Music and Performing Arts (QS World University Rankings 2024), as well as the number one higher education institution in the Guardian University Guide 2024 music league table, it delivers world-class professional training in partnership with distinguished artists, companies and ensembles.
A global leader in creative and professional practice, it promotes innovation, experiment, and research, and is also one of the UK’s leading providers of lifelong learning in the performing arts, offering inspiring training for children, young people, adult learners, and creative and business professionals.
The School is provided by the City Corporation, as part of its contribution to the cultural life of London and the nation. The Square Mile’s governing body is one of the largest funders of heritage and cultural activities in the UK and invests over £130m every year.
Chair of Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Board of Governors, Emily Benn, said:
“It is the greatest honour to be elected as Chair of Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the UK’s leading performing arts conservatoire. I am constantly in awe at the talents of our students, and what they go on to achieve.
“I am the product of a musical education and have seen first-hand how the skills young people learn thanks to a performing arts education can transform personal and professional lives, as they did mine.
“I look forward to working with the Corporation, as well as colleagues across the cultural sector to demonstrate how critical the arts are for the future health and wealth of the UK, and fight to ensure that all young people have the chance of a brilliant arts education.”
Emily Benn succeeds Graham Packham, who has served for three years as Chair of the Board of Governors. Caroline Haines has been elected as the School’s Deputy Chair, succeeding Randall Anderson, who also served for three years.
The Corporation manages a range of world-class cultural and heritage institutions, including Tower Bridge, Barbican Centre, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Guildhall Art Gallery, London Metropolitan Archives, and Keats House. It also owns and manages the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) and supports the Museum of London and London Symphony Orchestra.
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