Live Theatre's Chief Executive, Jim Beirne, and its Chairman Paul Callaghan have both been honoured in the Queens Birthday 2012 Honours List.
Jim Beirne has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He has been Chief Executive since 2000, and oversaw the £6million capital refurbishment. He has overall responsibility for the management and vision for the company.
Prior to moving to Newcastle, he was Director of Performing and Combined Arts for Yorkshire Arts Board (now Arts Council Yorkshire). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, has been a trustee of The Sage Gateshead and Leeds College of Music and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from Northumbria University last autumn.
Paul Callaghan has been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He is Chairman of the Leighton Group, the North East based technology, software, media and communications group that he founded. He was Chairman of ONE North East from 2010 to 2012 and was also Chair of Chairs of all of England's Regional Development Agencies for that period. In 2009 he was commissioned as Deputy Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Institute of Administrative Management. He is the fourth David Goldman Visiting Professor of Business Innovation at the University of Newcastle and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the University of Sunderland in recognition of his contribution in recognition of his contribution to the business and academic life of the region. He is now Chairman of the University's Board of Governors.