Pauline Tambling is Joint CEO of Creative & Cultural Skills and Managing Director of the National Skills Academy. Responsible for the successful bid to the LSC for development funding for the Skills Academy, building work has started to create a state of the art backstage training centre in Purfleet.
Until April 2009, Pauline was Chief Operating Officer of Creative & Cultural Skills. She previously worked at Arts Council England (1998 – 2007) in five senior roles with a wide range of responsibilities and led several major initiatives involving education and training, including setting up Creative Partnerships, the £130 million scheme to engage young people in schools with creative practitioners and organizations. She was also responsible for setting up the Council’s research and development department, managed the merger of the then Arts Council of England with the ten independent regional arts associations, and led the capital and stabilization teams.

Pauline was Head of Education at the Royal Opera House from 1983 to 1997 where she created the department, running a comprehensive programme of workshops and main stage performances for schools as well as teachers’ courses and international exchanges. With La Monnaie, Brussels and the Paris Opera, she co-founded Reseo, a European network of opera house education departments.

She has an MA from Leeds University and has written academic articles and devised programmes for BBC Television.
She is Chair of Shape (an arts and disability organization in London), a member of the Clore Leadership Programme Strategy Group and a governor of the University of the Creative Arts (UCA).

Previous non-executive roles include as editorial board member of Cultural Trends, a member of the Arts for a Healing and Learning Environment committee at St George’s NHS Trust in South London and a trustee of Shakespeare Schools Festival.