Alumna Interview with Julia Potts, Business Director at Ambassador Theatre Group

For our Alumna of the Month interview, we spoke to Julia Robinson (nee Potts, which she still uses professionally), Business Director (UK Venues), Ambassador Theatre Group.

Julia joined Bromley High School in 1986 and left in 1993, after studying A level English Literature, History, Government and Political Studies. She read English and American Literature at Manchester University and also has a postgraduate degree in MA Text and Performance Studies from King’s College London and RADA.

Please can you briefly describe your current role?

I work for a global live entertainment company, Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), which operates primarily in the UK but also in the US and Germany. In the UK we operate 40 theatres, including 12 in the West End, as well as produce shows via our production arm. My role has overall responsibility for 9 large-scale regional theatres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sunderland, Manchester, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, and Bristol. These theatres are lyric houses –  where you would go to see big musicals, comedy, opera, and ballet and occasionally drama.

My responsibilities include the overall financial performance, managing relationships with local stakeholders such as city councils and working on major capital (building) projects. I also manage the aspects of running a business including HR, safety, and diversity. I don’t do the programming; however, I do see a lot of theatre, and influence those decisions.

How did Bromley High School help shape your future career?

Bromley High School was key to my career development, in three keys ways.

Firstly, Bromley High School enabled me to believe in myself as a leader, both at school and for the future. I left school with a firm belief that I was both entitled to be a leader professionally, and I was provided with the hard and soft skills to get there. I remember being told repeatedly ‘girls, you can do anything’ which has stayed with me to this day.

Secondary, due to the passion and commitment of one of the English teachers, Mrs Jenner, who ran a hugely busy Theatre Society, I benefitted from going on loads of theatre trips with the school, something my family couldn’t have afforded to do.

Thirdly, I was able to explore my early interest in business by taking part in Young Enterprise, as well as being supported with a Sixth Form Scholarship funded by a local business, Tiphook. I was given strong guidance that you didn’t need to be defined as an ‘arts person’ or a ‘science person’ but that you could, in fact, combine elements of both – which is exactly what I do now.

What aspects of Bromley High School did you most enjoy, and find most rewarding?

I really enjoyed most of the academic curriculum, including subjects like physics, geography and Latin – perhaps surprisingly given my career choice! I ran the Debating Society and was the Returning Officer for the mock General Election in 1992, both of which were great experiences ahead of university. I loved our various dramatic efforts from interform drama festivals (I recall fondly our triumphant winning effort of The Catastrophic Kidnapping of Cordelia Carruthers in the Lower Fifth), to playing Orlando in As You Like It in the Sixth Form.

What is your favourite memory of being at Bromley High School?

I think it must be sitting in my A-Level English lesson when Miss Jones came in to tell my friend Katy Gore and I that we had been elected Head Girls. It not only meant the world to me, but also to my family.  I am still proud to say I was Head Girl at Bromley High School, thirty years later!

What value do you get out of your connections with your fellow alumnae?

A great deal, both in terms of friendship and professional connections. It may sound clichéd, but Bromley High School alumnae are very much an extended family whom you might not see that often, but with whom you can pick up so easily because of your shared history and values.

It is not just about being one type of person either.  I think we are all very different, and that’s so important and to be celebrated, we do just ‘get’ each other.

How have you benefited from being part of the wider GDST community?