Distinguished friends

Sandy Nairne

Sandy Nairne CBE has been the deputy chair of the National Trust since 2022. He was chair of the Clore Leadership Programme from 2014 to 2019 and director of the National Portrait Gallery from 2002 to 2015. He was director of programmes at Tate for eight years, and has worked previously as assistant director, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, director of exhibitions at the ICA and director of visual arts for the Arts Council of Great Britain. He is chair of the Fabric Advisory Committee of St Paul’s Cathedral. Sandy has lectured widely and chaired numerous conferences and seminars in Britain and abroad. His most recent books are The Portrait Now (National Portrait Gallery, 2006), and Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners (Reaktion, 2011).

Image of Sandy Nairne copyright Eamonn McCabe.