Creative UK founder and former CEO Caroline Norbury, Order of the British Empire (OBE) officer and Deputy Lieutenant (DL) has been appointed as Aardman’s new chair of trustees.
Norbury joined the Aardman trustee board in 2024 and succeeded David Pester as chair. TLT partner and head of strategic growth Pester, has served as chair for the past seven years following Aardman’s transition to employee ownership in 2018, and will continue to remain on the board as an independent trustee.
Aardman introduced its trustee board after co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton transferred 75 per cent of their shares into a trust created for the benefit of the studio’s employees. The chair works closely with the executive board to help maintain Aardman’s independence, creative culture, and focus on producing award-winning content.
“I have been an Aardman fan since I first saw Morph on Take Hart and so it is an immense privilege to have been asked to be chair of trustees. We’re extremely grateful to David as he steps down and my thanks, and those of the other trustees, go to him for the thoughtful and sensitive leadership he has provided the last seven years,” shared Norbury. “Inventiveness, innovation, humour and creativity, with a huge dash of humanity, are hard-wired into the DNA of Aardman. It is our job as trustees to ensure that these core values are sustained and that the business remains committed to its values and principles as an employee-owned company and of course, a national treasure.”
“People at Aardman are an amazing and ingenious group of creative people. Working with them as chair since 2018 has been a privilege. I’m very pleased to remain part of the team helping support Caroline in her new role as chair,” commented Pester.
“It has been a tremendous pleasure to work alongside David over the last seven years in what has been a key period of Aardman’s journey as an employee owned company. We are grateful for his stewardship of the trustee board, working with the exec board in navigating both challenges and opportunities during a time of much change in our industry. I am pleased that we will continue to have his invaluable expertise and experience on the trustee board. Our 50th anniversary year is an opportune time to reflect on past achievements but also to look forward to the future and we are delighted to welcome Caroline as our new chair. Her contribution as a trustee has already been significant, and her wealth of experience and understanding of the creative industries will help support the exec board in ensuring Aardman has a bright future for the next 50 years,” Aardman managing director Sean Clarke expressed.
Norbury OBE has spent her career supporting the cultural and creative industries, starting in community arts before moving into film and television production. As Creative UK founder and former CEO, she helped strengthen the creative sector and supported the growth of emerging creative businesses.
She stepped down from her role at Creative UK in March 2026 and will officially begin her new role as Aardman chair of trustees in June 2026, leading existing independent trustees Laurence Green, Pester, Deep Sehgal, Aardman employees Will Becher and Carla Shelley, and Aardman co-founder Sproxton.
