CGO Team

The CGO is led by Chris Grady and Kath Burlinson, supported by a team of associates.

Chris Grady

CG at Apex 2012

Chris Grady is a facilitator, workshop leader and trainer specialising in the support of the next generation of creative producers and practitioners. He is a qualified life support coach working with sole traders and small businesses across the arts and the wellness industries. He works nationally and internationally. Chris collaborates with associates across the world on the development of new training and development paths for theatre producers and theatre makers.

Over the last 40 years, Chris has run, built, marketed, and created numerous theatres and festivals. He has worked in senior marketing and management roles at Bristol Hippodrome (Assistant Theatre Manager); Plymouth Theatre Royal (Head of Marketing); Edinburgh International Festival and Traverse Theatres (Head of Marketing); Highland Hospice (Appeal Coordinator); and Buxton Opera House (CEO and Programmer/Founding Director of the Festival of Musicals). He also produced London’s Vivian Ellis Prize and the Society of London Theatre’s (SOLT) Stagefair and Window on the West End (Event & Exhibition Producer) at venues including Drury Lane Theatre, London Palladium 

Chris’s other work has included: New Musicals Alliance (Founder), Musical Theatre Network (Founder), Cardiff BBC Wales (Musicals Festival/Voice of Musical Theatre Project Developer), Keswick Theatre by The Lake (Co-project Build Coordinator), Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal (Head of Marketing and Development). He also worked internationally as Head of Licensing for Cameron Mackintosh working on Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and Witches of Eastwick in variously Mexico City,  Tokyo, Seoul, Prague, Moscow, Sao Paolo, and Berlin.

Chris created and ran the MA in Creative Producing at Mountview Academy for of Theatre Arts, until August 2018. He then returned to live in Scotland where he works for the University of the West of Scotland and founded the CGO Institute to deliver an online Diploma in Creative Producing from 2020  He is on the Board of the Authentic Artist Collective, Island Life Productions and Stagescripts Ltd.

Chris has published Your Life in the Theatre – a self-help career guide or the arts. He was commissioned to write an e-book The Anatomy of Your Creativity targeted at business managers and leaders in need of creative support and inspiration.


Kath Burlinson

Kath Burlinson, Ph.D, is a professional theatre director with extensive experience of leading training and development programmes within the corporate sector.  Kath has delivered speaker training for conferences at junior, executive, and CEO level. She leads communication skills, personal impact, authenticity, and leadership training. She appliesher skills as a theatre practitioner to body, breath, and voice work in an accessible and effective manner.

Kath’s private and public sector clients include: Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Program; Pershing Ltd; Greene King; Capgemini; Digital Europe; Tata Consulting Services; Oxera; The Home Office; Atos/Origin; Hounslow Council; University of Essex; Avanade UK; The Office for Public Management; Servest; Gyros; Suffolk Occupational Health; Orwell; Havebury and Wherry Housing Associations.

In 2004, Kath created the Authentic Artist Collective workshop and workshop programme since when she has created award winning productions for solo artists and ensembles which have played in the UK and Internationally.   Together with Chris they deliver a programme of personal impact and presentation skills under the one day banner of the Art of Being Heard. Originally created in 2008 at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds it has been taken by over 250 business leaders, entrepreneurs and middle management across the UK.