Vikki Heywood was appointed as RSA Chair at the AGM in October 2012 having been an RSA Fellow for almost ten years. Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), a position from which she stepped down last year. Since leaving the RSC she has also taken on the chairmanship of Mountview Drama Academy and of the First World War Centenary Cultural Programme Board.

Prior to her appointment at the RSC, Vikki was Joint Chief Executive of the Royal Court Theatre, the country's foremost theatre for the development of new writing. At both the RSC and the Royal Court she was responsible for their two multiple million pound capital projects which transformed two iconic theatre buildings in London and Stratford Upon Avon.

She has been a board member of the Society of London Theatre, The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and was a member of Warwick University Council from 2008/09 to 2013/14.

She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham, becoming a Doctor of Letters in December 2009 and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2012 for services to theatre