Tom Harvey
Tom Harvey MBE is a BAFTA winning creative and cultural sector leader and writer. Early life. Harvey was born outside Stevenage New Town; his father was sculptor Mark Harvey and his grandfather was author William Fryer Harvey. He attended the Nobel School Stevenage and the London College of Printing, where he studied photography, film and television. Career. Harvey was founder and CEO of London-based festival SohoCreate. The festival explored creativity and championed creative people and their work. Harvey was Chief Executive of Northern Film & Media, the creative industries development agency for North East England. The company invests  in creative people, ideas and companies, working in film, television, web, mobile, games and music. With North Star Ventures, Harvey helped raise £6m now invested in a range of projects from television dramas like "Inspector George Gently", "Joe Maddison’s War", "United" and "Vera" starring Brenda Blethyn. Northern Film & The fund also invested in feature films like "Song For Marion", starring Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave, and "The Liability" starring Tim Roth and Talulah Riley. Harvey is an Executive Producer on "One Night in Turin" directed by James Erskine, and feature films "Rising Tide", "No Place To Hide , Frank", directed by Richard Heslop and "Unconditional", directed by Bryn Higgins. The fund's TV investments have so far reached 80 million viewers across the UK. Harvey began working in the media industry at David Puttnam's feature film company Enigma Productions. He then worked as an Assistant Director, Production Manager and Producer across a range of productions, including US and UK movies, television films and series, documentaries, short films and pop promos, including Happy Mondays and New Order, including their controversial promo "Touched by the Hand of God", directed by Kathryn Bigelow. He ran the Edinburgh International Television Festival  for three years, signing up speakers including Barry Diller, Dennis Potter and John Birt, and developing the festival strands for young people, TVYP and TV25. He worked in senior management at the BBC as Commissions and Strategy Executive on BBC2 for Michael Jackson and as Manager of the Independent Commissioning Group for Jane Root. He was Managing Director of online interactive entertainment company XPT with Tim Wright and Rob Bevan. As a playwright Harvey wrote the plays "Pool" "The Nature of Gravity" "Our Secret Home" "About Last Night" "Dead Dog" "Rich" and "Lydia" about Henri Matisse’s final muse Lydia  Delectorskaya. "Pool" won the Brockley Jack Theatre playwriting competition in 2014 and was produced by the Theatre in May/June 2014. Verbatim play ABOUT LAST NIGHT on the 2017 general election, was performed at the Arcola Theatre with a cast including Monica Dolan and Helen Belbin. Harvey's short plays have been performed at The Park Theatre, The Jack, Theatre 503, Arts Theatre and The Cockpit. HER was selected for the ONE Festival at The Space Theatre and the FREE festival at Southwark Playhouse. Harvey is a Fellow 2007 of the Clore Leadership Programme, a graduate of Harvard Business School ’s short course in Private Equity and Venture Capital 2009, and a Common Purpose Graduate 2003. Membership. Harvey is a member of BAFTA. He has an honours degree in film & TV, and in the past has served on the advisory board for IPPR North, the Board of Culture North East and the management board of music accelerator Generator. Awards. In the 2012 New Year Honours Harvey was awarded an MBE for services to the creative industries.