Sydney-based principal opera company, Opera Australia(OA) has appointed Fiona Allan as its new Chief Executive Officer(CEO). Allan will assume the role by the end of 2021 and will work with Rory Jeffes who will leave OA in February next year. She will be leading OA out of its economic distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and work with Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini to re-position the company in order to operate in a post-pandemic world. 

Allan will be responsible for driving the entire arts sector by rebuilding jobs and activities and building on the extraordinary work to continue to expand the company’s reach and appeal to ensure its ongoing survival. With over 25 years of experience in working across the art and cultural sector, she is quite proficient in both artistic and organisational leadership. 

Allan is currently President of UK Theatre, Chair of the Midlands Regional Tourism Board, and a director of several other arts and business organisations. She was felicitated with the Woman with Edge award at the UK’s Women of the Year Awards in October 2018. 

Prior to OA, she has been Artistic Director and Chief Executive at Birmingham Hippodrome since 2015. Allan organised a wide range of performing arts including musicals, international dance, and ballet, opera, theatre, and comedy with the producers at Birmingham Hippodrome. She has held prestigious posts at Leicester’s Curve Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre and the Birmingham Hippodrome. 

David Mortimer, Opera Australia’s Chair said that he is thrilled to welcome an accomplished cultural and business leader like Allan to the company. 

Allan is excited to join OA and thanked the company for the amazing opportunity. She would love to work with other arts and cultural leaders to promote the value of a thriving Australian cultural sector.