Simon is a Senior Lecturer in Arts & Festivals Management, with over 20 years’ experience working within the cultural sector. He was Senior Festivals and Events Officer at Leicester City Council directly managing and supporting on a variety of events including Leicester’s Diwali celebrations, Riverside Festival, City Festival, Leicester City’s Premiership victory event and Ceremonies Director for the Special Olympics in Leicester. During this time he also spent a year in a strategic role as Cultural Programme Coordinator, working with the leaders of local arts organisations on the City Mayors Culture Advisory Panel. He joined Leicester based cultural development charity ArtReach in 2017 as Head of Events and later took over as Managing Director. While at ArtReach Simon led the organisation through a period of transition as an Arts Council national portfolio organisation, gaining charity status, and overseeing multiple events and projects including a large scale Creative Europe project with 12 partners from 10 different European countries.