Lord Mendoza is Provost of Oriel College, Oxford University. He is also the Chair of Historic England and was formerly the government’s Commissioner for Culture at the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). He led two government reviews — The Mendoza Review of museums in England and a Strategic Review for the Cabinet Office covering the national museums. He co-chaired Boundless Creativity, a commission investigating the impact of innovation on recovery from Covid in the culture sectors and now chairs the Culture and Heritage Capital initiative for DCMS.
Additional government appointments included being a Commissioner of Historic England and a member of the review panel looking into the sustainability of English churches and cathedrals. Neil is a director of Meira GTx, a gene therapy company, listed on Nasdaq. Previously, Neil was Chair of The Landmark Trust, Vice-Chair of Soho Theatre, a trustee of the Shakespeare Schools Festival and on the judging panel for the Laurence Olivier Awards for two years. Neil co-founded and ran a publishing company, Forward, that was sold to the marketing group, WPP.