Mohammad ‘Shawab’ Iqbal – Executive Director and CEO (2021-2022)

Born and bred in east London, Shawab has spent over a decade working across theatre and dance. He is also Vice Chair of Tamasha, Deputy Chair of the London Theatre Consortium (LTC), Trustee at Northern Stage and also sits on the Arts Council’s London Area Council as a Mayor of London appointment. Shawab is also a Senior Artistic Associate at the Bush Theatre.

Prior to the Gate, he was Executive Producer at Eclipse, Learning and Participation Producer at Boy Blue, Producer at Theatre Royal Stratford East and Administrator at New Adventures, as well as building an extensive freelance portfolio working with both established and emerging artists.

Shawab is also the co-founder of the #AllofUs campaign, designed to support Black, Asian and ethnically diverse arts workers who have been made redundant due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is also a former independent governor at Newham Sixth Form College, where he sat on the Audit and Scrutiny Committee and was the lead for equality and diversity. Shawab is also a qualified teacher and former ChildLine counsellor.

He graduated with a first class honours degree in Sociology from the University of Kent, holds a PGCE in Social Science from the UCL Institute of Education and a MA in Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity from Birkbeck.

(he/him)