SIR HOWARD PANTER & DAME ROSEMARY SQUIRE

JOINT CO-FOUNDERS AND CEOs

Sir Howard Panter and Dame Rosemary Squire are two of the world’s leading theatre impresarios. Their latest venture, Trafalgar Entertainment, is a global live-entertainment business focussed on new productions, venue ownership, Performing Arts education, theatre ticketing, the distribution and filming of event cinema and TV live-streaming innovative content (from The Met to Taylor Swift) and the provision of great theatres where people can come together to share in the experience of live entertainment.

TE is home to Trafalgar Theatres (comprising Trafalgar Theatre and Olympia Theatre in London, Theatre Royal Sydney, and 13 UK regional venues), The Chiswick Cinema, Trafalgar Theatre Productions, Trafalgar Releasing, Trafalgar Tickets, Stagecoach Performing Arts, Drama Kids, ticketing company London Theatre Direct, Stagedoor, Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, and Imagine Theatre.

Before Trafalgar Entertainment, Howard and Rosemary built from scratch and ran for its first 25 years, the world’s largest and most successful live theatre business – the Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG). Under their leadership, ATG became a premier international theatre owner and prolific, successful global producer.

Respected advocates for cultural industries in the UK and internationally, the power couple were placed at number one in The Stage 100 for seven consecutive record-breaking years, topped the Evening Standard ‘Power 1000’ Theatre section and were recognised in the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 list of London’s Most Influential People in the Creative Arts: Theatre section.

In 2013, Howard received a Knighthood in The Queen’s Birthday Honours list for Services to Theatre, and in 2018, Rosemary was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s New Year Honours list for services to Theatre and Philanthropy. In 2019, Woking Borough Council bestowed Honorary Freedom of the Borough upon the couple, both long-serving members of their local community. And in 2024, Howard and Rosemary were awarded the Freedom of the City of London in recognition of their contribution to theatre and the cultural life of London.

As a prominent international theatre producer, Howard is one of the key figures in the arts and entertainment industry with over 50 years’ experience gained in organisations such as The Royal Court Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Michael Codron Ltd.

Howard is a Director of the Rocky Horror Company Limited. He was Chairman of The English Shakespeare Company, Director of West End theatre owners Maybox Group plc, Chairman of the Birmingham Rep Theatre, and Chairman of Rambert Dance Company, the UK’s leading national contemporary dance company, who under his ten-year Chairmanship successfully built their award-winning new dance centre on the South Bank and led the company into a new era of success and stability.

Rosemary is the only woman to have won the EY UK Entrepreneur of the Year Award and in 2015, she became the first woman to represent the UK at the World Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. She was a National Member of the Arts Council England Board for ten years, Chair of the Board for Sonia Friedman Productions, and Joint Chair of The Hall for Cornwall in Truro. Rosemary is currently Chair of Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

As President of the Society of London Theatre, Rosemary became the second only female President in the organisation’s history. She won the prestigious CBI Real Business First Women Award for Tourism & Leisure and was awarded an OBE for Services to Theatre.

Rosemary raised over £6m as Chair of the Theatres for Theatres Appeal at Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. Subsequently as Chair of the charity’s Tick Tock Club, she raised almost £14m for the hospital’s first intraoperative MRI suite – a specialised facility combining an operating theatre and interconnected scanning suite to enable real-time imaging during delicate brain surgery.

Rosemary was one of the 100 women on the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour UK Power List in 2013, appearing at number 16. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from Southampton University and De Montfort University in recognition of her achievements as a theatre entrepreneur.