Margaret Casely-Hayford set to chair the Royal College of Music

Margaret Casely-Hayford is set to become chair of the Royal College of Music in August 2027, succeeding Lord Black. The appointment would place a lawyer with extensive experience in business, higher education and cultural organisations at the head of the conservatoire’s governing council.

Her career includes service as director of legal services and company secretary at the John Lewis Partnership, alongside leadership roles connected with Coventry University and Shakespeare’s Globe. She has also worked in charity governance and initiatives concerned with representation and public history.

Those experiences matter because a conservatoire’s governing chair occupies a different position from its artistic and academic leaders. The role concerns institutional stewardship: supporting strategy, scrutinising decisions and helping ensure that the organisation can sustain its educational purpose.

The scheduled transition is still months away. The appointment should therefore be understood as a forthcoming change in governance, rather than an immediate alteration to teaching, admissions or concert programming. No specific changes in those areas have been announced alongside the succession described here.

Casely-Hayford’s background suggests a broad frame of reference for the job, extending beyond the specialist music sector. The useful question will be how that experience is applied to the particular needs of a conservatoire, where artistic development depends on long-term investment in people, facilities and opportunities to perform.

For students and staff, continuity during the handover will be as important as the profile of the incoming chair. For the wider sector, the appointment adds another example of cultural institutions looking to leaders whose careers connect several professional worlds.

The significance of the change will become clearer as the transition approaches and the college sets out the priorities that will accompany the new chair’s term.