A new Chief Executive has been appointed to run iconic landmark The Forum in Norwich city centre. Chris Gribble, the Chief Executive of the National Centre for Writing based in King Street, will take over The Forum Trust, which runs The Forum building and Norwich Science Festival amongst a rich mixture of other events including coordinating the county’s Heritage Open Days programme. Chairman John Fry said: “We were delighted to get such a strong field of applicants which reflects the success of The Forum and the high regards it’s held in across Norfolk and beyond. “The Forum has very quickly become established in people’s minds as a place for everyone to visit and enjoy. We have a clear strategy to reduce our environmental impact, to widen the reach of The Forum’s activities and to continue to maintain and develop the building ensuring we make a real impact on the economic life of the city and beyond. “I have no doubt Chris’s background and expertise will help with all of that and look forward to what he, The Forum team and our many partners come up with to continue to build the impact and the reach of The Forum’s activities.” Chris Gribble said: “It’s a real honour be taking on the Chief Executive role at The Forum and I’m very excited to get going in the autumn. The Forum lies at the heart of Norwich and Norfolk’s public life and as it approaches its 25th anniversary, the team and partnerships that have been behind its success have a wonderful opportunity to celebrate that first quarter of a century and look forward to the next. I can’t wait to start the conversations with all those who visit and use The Forum to explore what the coming years might look like.’ He succeeds Tim Bishop who has been in charge of The Forum for the last 11 years. Tim Bishop is a former Editor of the Evening News, BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Look East. Tim Bishop said: “It’s been a privilege to be involved in such a fantastic place with a great team and the huge opportunity to make a real difference in the city. “I was very fortunate to take over such a successful place thanks to the pioneering work of The Forum’s founders, notably my predecessor Robin Hall who got The Forum built on time and on budget which was a huge achievement. “Those rock-solid foundations have allowed us to develop the offer to the public and The Forum is now part of the life of the city to the point it’s difficult to imagine Norwich without The Forum. “Working with our partners we created the Norwich Science Festival, which has now become a much loved and anticipated event at venues across the city centre and is waving the Norfolk and Norwich flag nationally showing we are both a lovely heritage city but also at the centre of some ground-breaking scientific research. “Since 2016, The Forum has been coordinating the county’s Heritage Open Days programme which is the biggest and most successful event of its kind outside London. And we’ve built a wide range of other inspiring events that are very much part of the Norfolk calendar – notably the Norfolk Makers Festival, Run Norwich and the always bustling Norwich Games Festival. “I think getting Run Norwich off the ground was the trickiest event to get started I’ve ever been part of, dwarfing some of the national events I was involved in as a journalist from the coverage of Princess Diana’s funeral to the events marking the 2012 Olympics across the region. “I look forward to visiting The Forum in my retirement and seeing what Chris and the team do next.” The Forum is 20 years old and was created in partnership by Norfolk County Council, Norwich City Council and the then Millennium Commission which provided around £80 million of funding to create a Millennium Project for the East of England alongside the Eden Project in Cornwall, the O2 and the Millennium Bridge in London amongst others. The Forum gets no regular public funding and is run by an independent Charitable Trust. Image provided by The Forum
