New Mark Milsome Foundation chair announced

The MMF announced that the Board of Trustees have appointed Samantha Wainstein as its new chair.

Samantha will replace Kirk Jones who has worked for four and a half years setting up the Foundation and guiding it through the early years.

Samantha and the board asked Kirk to consider staying on as a Patron and he has accepted. Although stepping away from the daily business, he will join Rory Kinnear as Patron and will be present when needed.

Kirk commented: “I could not be more thrilled to see Samantha take on the role of chair. Thanks to the Founding members of the MMF, the trustees and the support of crew and production, we have made great progress in the first few years and Sam is well placed to build on those foundations and take the charity to the next level”.

Sam has a strong track record of leadership and delivery across the charity, business, film education and culture sectors.

She was part of the founding team of FilmClub, established in 2008 by Director Beeban Kidron. By 2013 the project, now known as Into Film had grown from a pilot of 25 schools to over 7,000.  Samantha played a lead role in securing £26 million of funding from the BFI and £2.8 million from the cinema industry.  Into Film is the UK’s leading charity for film in education. In 2016 Sam founded a not-for-profit, ‘Film Literacy Europe’ which delivered film education projects across 8 European countries, and in 2017 working for the BFI, she launched their 2022 Future Films Strategy with an action plan to build skills for the future of film, tackling diversity and inclusion, so those from all backgrounds can have a future in the industry.

Samantha Wainstein said: “I am incredibly excited to take on the position of Mark Milsome Foundation Chair. My gratitude goes to Kirk, who has done the most amazing job of founding and leading the Foundation, and who has been a fantastic support in the last few weeks of hand over. In recognition of all that he has done including developing the Health & Safety Online Passport, it was important to me that Kirk be invited to become a Patron. I am delighted he agreed to the role, joining the wonderful Rory Kinnear.  I’m aware of how vital the film and tv community is to the success of the Foundation, and I hope we get the chance to meet soon.”