BFI Adds Six Members To Board Of Governors 

The British Film Institute has added six new members to its board of governors, expanding the executive group to 14. 

The new members are Tanya Cordrey, Mark Herbert, Ganan Kanagathurai, Hakan Kousetta, Ryan Prince, and Jane Tranter (Wales Governor). Extended biographies of the new members can be found below. 

Each BFI board member serves a four-year term. The BFI has said recruitment for a new governor to represent Scotland is ongoing.

Today’s new members join Monica Chadha, Elizabeth Karlsen, Laura Miele, and Edgar Wright, all of whom have been reappointed for a further four-year term. The BFI board also includes Michael Birshan, Declan Keeney (Northern Ireland Governor), Nell Whitley, and overall board chair Jay Hunt. 

In a statement announcing the new members, Hunt said: “The BFI is the screen industry’s engine room, powering its cultural and industrial success, and I’m delighted to welcome six highly talented individuals to our Board to guide the organisation in the years ahead. Their experience across film, television, digital, business, and technology will enhance an already world-class BFI Board.”

The new BFI board members: 

Tanya Cordrey

Tanya Cordrey is a leading product and technology executive with over two decades of experience scaling some of the world’s best-known businesses. She is currently Chief Product Officer at Motorway, the UK’s largest online used-car marketplace, which is pioneering the development of AI products to transform how people buy and sell cars.

Previously, Tanya held senior roles at Instagram as VP of Product and at Guardian News & Media as Chief Digital Officer, where she sat on the executive committee and oversaw an award-winning product portfolio. She brings extensive board experience, having served as a Non-Executive Director at Clarks and Schibsted, and as an adviser to the Government Digital Service. She holds an MBA with distinction from London Business School.

Mark Herbert

Mark’s first Producer role was on the hit show Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights in 2001. In 2002, Mark co-founded the Sheffield based production company WarpFilms which has become a beacon for working class and regional film and TV.

Across Mark’s 20+ years as CEO of Warp he has produced 25 films, 17 TV series and 8 short films and has won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and 5 Bafta awards in both film and television for work including the film This is England to Executive Producing the recent global Netflix award winning hit show Adolescence with long term collaborators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham.  Mark’s career highlights also include Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (2021), The Virtues (2019), Tyrannosaur (2011), Four Lions (2011), Dead Man Shoes (2004), My Wrongs (2002).

Ganan Kanagathurai

Ganan Kanagathurai is a senior executive and entrepreneur with a proven track record of scaling iconic brands across the UK’s hospitality, and creative sectors. Ganan is the owner and Chairman of the acclaimed Roti King restaurant group and was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the UK food chain itsu.

Deeply committed to the UK’s cultural landscape, Ganan serves as Chairman of Rifco, the UK’s leading South Asian theatre production company and is also a trustee of Women in Sport. Ganan brings a unique blend of high-level corporate governance, entrepreneurial agility, and a passion for diverse storytelling.

Hakan Kousetta

Hakan Kousetta is, alongside Jamie Laurenson, the co-founder of 60Forty Films and since 2015, has produced over 100 hours of scripted television. Hakan is currently executive producer on the second series of Down Cemetery Road, both seasons of Hijack, and Apple TV’s yet to be released limited six- part series Last Seen. He’s also been the executive producer on Slow Horses since the show’s inception and throughout the entire six season run on Apple TV and each of series 7 and 8, currently shooting in London.

Hakan’s other production credits include Apple TV+’s The Essex Serpent directed by Clio Barnard, BBC series The North Water directed by Andrew Haigh, Love Nina for BBC2, The End for SKY, season 2 of Jane Campion’s Top of The Lake: China Girl (which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Globe). He also Executive Produced two seasons of State of the Union, written by Nick Hornby, directed by Stephen Frears and winner of four Emmy Awards®.

Passionate about the UK’s television and film industry, Kousetta has been a vocal advocate for the production community. He was on PACT council for over five years and Chair in 2021 when he also received a special innovation award by the Producers Guild of Great Britain for extensive work with the Government on designing and implementing the COVID Film and TV Production Restart Scheme.

Ryan Prince

For the past 25 years Ryan has founded and overseen complex operating businesses in the hospitality and housing sectors. He is Vice Chairman of multinational investment company Realstar Group, a real- estate and investment management company with over $7bn of assets focused on rental residential, hospitality and alternative asset classes. Having acquired, renovated, and constructed projects with an end value of £4bn, Realstar’s UK business has developed over 10 residential towers in the UK, including the tallest in London, a 45-story tower designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour in Elephant and Castle and the Bankside Hotel next to Blackfriars Bridge.

Almost a decade ago, Ryan also founded the UK’s leading residential owner and operator of rental apartments UNCLE which supports renters in major cities across the UK for a better, fairer rental experience. Ryan is also the past Chairman of the UK Advisory Board and main board member of education and programming charity Facing History & Ourselves. The charity creates content and lesson plans for teachers in order to help students aged 14 to 18 tackle the hard questions of human behaviour throughout modern history.

Jane Tranter (Wales Governor) 

Made a CBE in 2025 for services to television and a recipient of the Bafta Special Award for her contribution to television, Tranter is one of the industry’s most experienced television executives and CEO and Co-Founder, Bad Wolf in Cardiff since 2015.She previously served as the BBC’s Controller of Drama and subsequently Controller of Fiction, founding and running commercial production companies BBC Worldwide Productions and Adjacent Productions in LA.

Bad Wolf’s purpose is to create ambitious, imaginative and relevant drama for UK, US and global television audiences, made locally in Wales. In 2016 she co-founded Wolf Studios Wales, starting the building of a world class 7 stage studio that is currently the only studio in the world built by producers for the purpose of their own productions. 

Tranter’s credits for Bad Wolf include the multiple Emmy Award-winning series’ The Night Of, three seasons of BAFTA-winning series His Dark Materials, four seasons of BAFTA-winning Industry, three seasons of the hugely popular A Discovery of Witches and two seasons of the BAFTA-winning I Hate Suzie and Doctor Who.  Other releases include an adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King and Dope Girls. Recent productions include a second season of Red Eye for ITV and new dramas The Other Bennet Sister for BBC/BritBox and The War Between the Land and the Sea for BBC and Disney Branded Television. Future projects include Berlin Noir for Apple and Bad Wolf’s first production with Netflix, The Lords’ Day. Tranter was also an Executive Producer on the multiple award-winning series Succession.