Visit London's Board

Tamara was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Grey London in June 2005. At the same time she was appointed to the newly created position of CEO of Grey Group UK comprising Grey London, Joshua, GCI and MDS Global Consulting.

Prior to Grey, in 2003 Tamara joined Kantar as President of the Henley Centre, Europe’s leading consumer consultancy, and of global marketing insights company, Added Value.

Tamara graduated with an honours degree in English and worked in film production before joining Saatchi & Saatchi in 1985 where she rose through the ranks to become CEO and then Executive Chairman in 2001. While she was at the helm, Saatchi became Cannes Agency of the Year (1996), creating award-winning campaigns for the NSPCC, the British Army and Club 18-30.

As Chairman of Visit London, Tamara’s goal is to deliver economic growth for London by encouraging Londoners to make greater use of their city and by driving higher business and leisure traffic to London. She is a board member of the London Development Agency, Chair of the Development Board for The Royal Court Theatre (known for its cutting edge creativity), and a member of The Marketing Society, the Marketing Group of Great Britain and WACL.

Denise Jones has considerable interest in the arts and literature. She currently runs a small independent bookshop in Brick Lane, which specialises in London history, children's books and black and Asian writing. She has published over 30 books on East London history and writing. She was a founder of Eastside Arts, a charity promoting literature in East London.

Denise is currently Lead Member for Culture at Tower Hamlets Council following four years as Deputy Leader. She is involved with the development of the cultural programme and sports delivery for the 2012 Olympics and is keen to ensure that local communities benefit. 

Since 1995 she has been Chair of the Mile End Millennium Park Board, a partnership that has built a £40 million self-sustainable sport, ecology, art and young people's park for the 21st century. She has led on the transformation of the borough's libraries into Ideas Stores designed by architect David Adjaye, combining lifelong learning, library facilities and free internet access, resulting in a threefold increase in local use.

She is Chair of the ALG Culture and Tourism Panel and the ACE Local Authority Forum. She is a founder and board member of the Rich Mix Cultural Centre and board member of the Museum of London and Docklands, V&A Museum of Childhood, TourEast London, Trinity Buoy Wharf Cultural Quarter, Wilton's Music Hall Trust, Aldgate & Allhallows Foundation and Greenwich and Docklands Festival. She is a Non-Executive Director of Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust.

Grant Hearn is CEO of Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing hotel company.

Grant joined Travelodge in January 2003 from Hilton UK and Ireland, where he was Managing Director for three years.

Previous to Hilton, Grant spent five years at Whitbread in senior roles, including Chief Operating Officer of Marriott and Managing Director of Travel Inn.

Before Whitbread, Grant was Executive Director, Forte London. He began his career at Forte as an Assistant Hotel Manager and spent 17 years at the group in a number of roles including Assistant Manager of the George V hotel in Paris.

Grant trained at Shannon College of Hotel Management, Ireland’s leading college of hotel management.

Grant is a member of Mayor Boris Johnson's London Skills and Employment Board and a Director of the British Hospitality Association (BHA).

Grant is married with three children.

Mark Taylor joined the Barbican Centre in 1996 as Commercial Director responsible for all commercial income generation and operations covering the areas of conferences, exhibitions, banqueting, public catering, retail as well as venue and event sponsorship.

In 2006 his remit was expanded to include the management and operation of all front of house and box office operations, the three public cinemas, as well as third party contracts for venue services such as cleaning, car parking and security. Mark also had board responsibility for the recently completed £14 million refurbishment of the Barbican’s entrances and foyers.

An Australian citizen, Mark began his career firstly in the travel industry in sales and operations with Club Mediterranee.

Before relocating to the UK, Mark was Convention and Incentive Sales Manager / Assistant Director at the Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau for the period 1985-1990.

In 1990 he joined the Wembley Group where he held the positions of Marketing Manager of the Wembley complex, and then Director of Sales and Marketing for Wembley International, the international venue management division of Wembley plc.

Mark has been an active member of Visit London’s business tourism advisory board, now BTAG, since 1997.

Mark is married to Fiona, has one daughter, lives on the river at Wapping and has a passion for travel.

Paul James was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear and studied Biochemistry at the universities of Manchester and Oxford. He joined academic publishers Cambridge University Press as a graduate trainee in 1986 and spent six years in a variety of marketing and editorial roles. He then moved into more mainstream publishing as Marketing Director for non-fiction books at HarperCollins publishers. In 1994 Paul won the British Book Award (aka Nibbie) for Marketing Campaign of the Year for his work on Botham: My Autobiography.

In 1996 he combined his marketing and managerial background with a long-standing interest in the performing arts by joining The Society of London Theatre (the trade association representing the theatre owners and producers of London's West End). As Commercial Manager, Paul has developed the Society's broad range of commercial activities alongside a range of audience and industry development initiatives. In 1998, along with author Tony Travers, Paul put together The Wyndham Report, which documented the economic impact of West End theatre on the UK economy.

Paul is also a musical theatre bookwriter and lyricist, having studied for six months with Stephen Sondheim in 1992 on his Masterclasses in Oxford. His shows include The Demon Headmaster and Police Story.

Married with three children, Paul lives in West London.

Sandie was appointed chief executive of VisitBritain in May 2009. She joined VisitBritain (formerly the British Tourist Authority) in 1991, and she has led marketing, business development and publicity strategies to grow the value of tourism to Britain. 

With industry partners she established the Tourism Industry Emergency Response Group (TIER) in 2001 and chaired it until 2009.

Having managed VisitBritain's support of the London 2012 bid, she led the development of VB's strategy to maximise the UK-wide tourism opportunities of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Her first job was with the BBC World Service, following which she worked in communications, marketing and business development roles in book publishing and tourism, including the Book Marketing Council, the English Tourist Board and the London Tourist Board (now Visit London).

As well as sitting on the board of Visit London, she serves on the board of VisitEngland.

Sandie received a Shine Award for Tourism Woman of the Year in 2005 and was awarded an MBE for her services to the tourist industry in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2008.

She grew up in Sri Lanka and was educated in Scotland, graduating from Edinburgh University with MA in German and English Literature.