Board Members of the Nureyev Foundation

Baroness Deborah Bull joined the foundation in 2022 and took up the role of Chair in July 2024. Her career spans arts and culture, the media, higher education and politics. She was a Principal Dancer with London’s Royal Ballet, becoming Creative Director of the Royal Opera House for 11 years. She joined King’s College London as Director, Cultural Partnerships in 2012, going on to become Vice President, Communities & National Engagement. She has served on the boards of organisations including the BBC, the Prix de Lausanne, Arts Council England and UK Research & Innovation. She has written several books alongside creating and presenting programmes for both radio and television. In 2018 she joined the House of Lords, where she sits as a cross bench Peer.

Thierry Fouquet is the former director of the National Opera of Bordeaux and former deputy director of the Opéra National de Paris. He is Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor and Knight in the National Order of Merit and Officer of Arts and Letters.

After studying at the Nice Conservatory, Charles Jude joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 1972 and was revealed two years later by Rudolf Nureyev. He was named Etoile in 1977. In 1996, until 2017, he took over the direction of the ballet of the Opéra National de Bordeaux.

Carlo Bagutti is the Medical Director of the Vidymed Swiss Olympic Medical Centre in Lausanne. He is a member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Entourage Commission and a member of the Swiss Athletics Federation Medical team. He is the Medical Physician in charge of the Prix de Lausanne and the referral doctor for dance companies and freelance dancers in Switzerland. He provides the foundation with specialist expertise in relation to its health, wellbeing and safeguarding partnerships and programmes.

Former Soloist, National Ballet of Canada (NBC) and former Grand Sujet, Het National Ballet (Amsterdam), Mavis Staines was coached by Rudolf Nureyev and performed multiple roles in his Sleeping Beauty during the 1970s. She joined the artistic faculty of
Canada’s National Ballet School in 1982 and was appointed the school’s Artistic Director in 1989. Over her 35 year tenure in this role, she revolutionised the way ballet is taught and cemented the school’s reputation as a leading champion of excellence, access and inclusion. She is a recipient of the 2019 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, a Member of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Susanne Keicher is a professional trustee in Vaduz (Liechtenstein) with Allgemeines Treuunternehmen. She became a board member of the foundation in 2023 following the resignation of her father Dr. Werner Keicher who had been a board member since 1985.

Claude Blum is a lawyer in Zurich (Switzerland) with Blum & Grob Attorneys at Law who acted for Rudolf Nureyev during his dancing career and as co-executor of his estate following his death. Dr Blum became a board member of the foundation in the early 1980s and was its chair from 2008 - 2024. His honorary board membership reflects and celebrates his longstanding commitment to the foundation and to realising the last wishes of Rudolf Nureyev.

Irène Pozzi joined the Foundation in 2008 from her role working in the finances of an international Artists Management Company in Zurich (Switzerland). Irène provides operational support to the foundation, managing administrative, financial, legal, audit, compliance and communications issues.