Stephen Waley-Cohen

{{Short description|English theatre producer (b. 1946)}} {{Use British English|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = Sir | name = Stephen Waley-Cohen | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|Bt}} | image = Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen portrait crop.jpg | alt = 2009 photo of Waley-Cohen | caption = Photo taken on 3 April 2009. | birth_name = Stephen Harry Waley-Cohen | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1946|06|22}} | birth_place = Westminster, London, England | death_date = | death_place = | education = Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge.<ref>[http://www.burkespeerage.com/FamilyHomepage.aspx?FID=14111 "Preview Family Record"], ''Burke's Peerage''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref><ref>[http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=46536692&ticker=UMES:IN&previousCapId=6332350&previousTitle=USHA%20MARTIN%20EDUCATION%20%26%20SOLU "Stephen Waley-Cohen Bt: Executive Profile & Biography"]{{dead link|date=April 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''Bloomberg Businessweek''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> | occupation = Theatre producer | known_for =  | boards =  | spouse = Pamela Doniger<br>({{abbr|m.|married}} {{abbr|div.|divorced}}) <br>Josie Spencer<br>({{abbr|m.|married}}) | children = 5, including Freya Waley-Cohen and Jack Waley-Cohen | father = Bernard Waley-Cohen | relatives = Sam Waley-Cohen (nephew), Edward Mattinson, Youth MP for East Hampshire (grandson) | awards =  | website =  }} '''Sir Stephen Harry Waley-Cohen, 2nd Baronet''' (born 22 June 1946)<ref name=Debretts>[http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/w/4220/Stephen+Harry.aspx "Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, Bt Authorised Biography"], ''Debrett's People of Today''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> is an English theatre owner-manager and producer, following a career as a businessman and financial journalist. He manages the St. Martin's Theatre in London's West End and is the current producer of the world's longest running play ''The Mousetrap''.<ref name=AudienceView>[http://www.audienceview.com/News-and-Events/Press-Releases/2009/Victoria-Palace-Licenses-AudienceView-Ticketing-So.aspx "Victoria Palace Licenses AudienceView Ticketing Solution"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130118075215/http://www.audienceview.com/News-and-Events/Press-Releases/2009/Victoria-Palace-Licenses-AudienceView-Ticketing-So.aspx |date=18 January 2013 }}, '' AudienceView Ticketing Company'', 22 January 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref><ref name=WOSNov2011>[http://www.whatsonstage.com/features/theatre/london/E8831322240669/Sir+Stephen+Waley-Cohen+On+...+Producing+the+Ultimate+Long-runner.html "Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen On ... Producing the Ultimate Long-runner"], ''Whatsonstage.com'', 25 November 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> He was chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) Council.<ref name=RADAGovernance>[https://www.rada.ac.uk/about/governance-and-advisors "RADA Governance and Advisors"], ''RADA'' from 2007 to 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2014.</ref>

==Career== ===Business=== Waley-Cohen was a financial journalist, at the ''Daily Mail'' from 1968 to 1973,<ref name=Debretts /> and a founder director and publisher at Euromoney Publications (which later became Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC)<ref name=AudienceView /><ref>Peter Truell, [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/06/business/can-2-magazine-cultures-find-happiness-together.html "Can 2 Magazine Cultures Find Happiness Together?"], ''The New York Times '', 6 September 1997. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> from 1969 to 1983.<ref name=Debretts />

He was involved with the insurance business, including as chairman of Willis Faber & Dumas (Agencies) (part of what became the Willis Group) from 1992 to 1999,<ref name=Debretts /><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140906175800/http://www.reactionsnet.com/Article/2154447/APPOINTMENT-AT-WILLIS-FABER-AND-DUMAS.html "Appointment At Willis Faber And Dumas"]}}, ''Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC'', 16 February 1992. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> director of the Stewart Wrightson Members Agency Ltd 1987 to 1998<ref name=Debretts /> and chairman of Policy Portfolio plc from 1993 to 1998.<ref name=Debretts /><ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/bottom-line-unsuitable-portfolio-for-investors-1482304.html "Bottom Line: Unsuitable Portfolio for investors"], ''The Independent'', 2 July 1993. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref>

He was chairman of First Call Group plc from 1996 to 1998 and of Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspaper plc from 1998 to 1999.<ref name=Debretts /> He was a director of Exeter Preferred Capital Investment Trust plc 1992–2003.<ref name=Debretts />

===Theatre=== Waley-Cohen has been a theatre owner and manager since 1984 when he was Joint Chief Executive of Maybox Group, which managed the Albery (now named the Noël Coward), Criterion, Donmar Warehouse, Piccadilly, Whitehall (now Trafalgar Studios) and Wyndham's theatres, until it was sold in 1989.<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView />

In 1989 he became managing director of the Victoria Palace Theatre,<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView /> and took on the management of the St. Martin's Theatre.<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView /> He managed the Vaudeville Theatre from 1996 to 2001<ref name=Debretts /><ref>Mark Fox, [http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/vaudeville-theatre/ "Theatres – Vaudeville Theatre"], ''Nimax Theatres''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> and the Savoy from 1997 to 2005.<ref name=AudienceView /><ref>Alistair Smith, [https://web.archive.org/web/20131030064605/http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2005/10/atg-buys-savoy-theatre/ "ATG buys Savoy Theatre"], ''The Stage'', 12 October 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> In April 2007 he took over the Ambassadors Theatre.<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView /> In 2014, he sold the Victoria Palace to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres.<ref>[https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/cameron-mackintosh-buys-west-ends-victoria-palace-and-ambassadors-theatres Cameron Mackintosh buys West End’s Victoria Palace and Ambassadors theatres]</ref>

He became the producer of ''The Mousetrap'' in 1994.<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=WOSNov2011 /> During his time managing the St. Martin's Theatre, he had got to know ''The Mousetrap''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s producer, Peter Saunders. Waley-Cohen said, "When [Saunders] wanted to retire at the age of 80, he picked up the phone to me".<ref name=AFRJul2012>Valerie Lawson, [http://afr.com/p/national/arts_saleroom/theatre_the_mousetrap_veritable_RCy1SQuguv4aAR14n9oLII "The Mousetrap a veritable money trap"], ''The Australian Financial Review'', 8 July 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> Mousetrap Productions, of which Waley-Cohen is the sole director, is licensed to produce the play by Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson, to whom she gave the rights to ''The Mousetrap'' when he was nine.<ref name=AFRJul2012 />

In 1997, Waley-Cohen launched the education charity, Mousetrap Theatre Projects.<ref name=MTP>[http://www.mousetrap.org.uk/index.php/about-us/history.html "Mousetrap Theatre Projects – History"], ''Mousetrap Theatre Projects'', 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> The charity brings disadvantaged young people into the West End to experience theatre, and runs access, education and audience development programmes. The charity had taken over 100,000 young people to the theatre by 2012.<ref name=MTP />

==Politics== Waley-Cohen stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in both the General Elections in 1974 for the Manchester Gorton constituency.

==Appointments and honours== Waley-Cohen was Chairman of the RADA Council until 2021 (a position to which he was elected in September 2007),<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView /><ref>[http://www.rada.ac.uk/about-rada/brief-history "About RADA {{!}} Brief History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804084348/http://www.rada.ac.uk/about-rada/brief-history |date=4 August 2012 }}, ''RADA''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> and Chairman of RADA's Development Board.<ref name=RADAGovernance /> He was President of the Society of London Theatre from 2002 to 2005, having been a member since 1984 and a board member since 1993.<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView /><ref>Nuala Calvi, [https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/atgs-squire-elected-solt-president/ "ATG’s Squire elected SOLT president"], ''The Stage'', 28 June 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> He was a Trustee of The Theatres Trust from 1998 to 2004.<ref name=Debretts /><ref name=AudienceView />

He is President of the JCA Charitable Foundation, which supports projects for education, agriculture and tourism in rural areas of Israel such as Galilee and the Negev.<ref name=Debretts /><ref>[http://www.ica-is.org.il/en/4 "ICA In Israel"], ''JCA Charitable Foundation''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref> In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.<ref name=BGU>[http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/BGU%20and%20You/BGU%20and%20You%20Summer%202011.pdf "Five Outstanding Individuals Honored"], ''Ben-Gurion University of the Negev'', Summer 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref>

He was chairman of the British-American Project executive committee from 1989 to 92, and continued to have a role in its subsequent development.<ref name=Debretts /><ref>[http://britishamericanproject.org/ourhistorypart8.asp "Our History Cont'd"], ''BAP''. Retrieved 1 December 2012.</ref>

He is currently a trustee of the Campaign for the Arts.<ref>[https://www.campaignforthearts.org/about/people/ "Our people"], ''Campaign for the Arts''. Retrieved 4 December 2024.</ref>

As a hereditary baronet, Waley-Cohen is styled ''Sir'' as part of his baronetcy – the title is not a knighthood.

==Personal life== Waley-Cohen has three children by his first marriage to Pamela Doniger, and two with American sculptor Josie Spencer. His nephew is the jockey Sam Waley-Cohen. His father, Bernard Waley-Cohen, was Lord Mayor of London, and his mother was educationalist and public servant Joyce Waley-Cohen.

==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |escutcheon = Quarterly: 1st & 4th Argent on a chevron Gules cottised Azure between in chief two roses of the second barbed and seeded Proper and in base a buck's head couped also Proper three annulets Or (Cohen); 2nd & 3rd Argent a chevron Azure cottised Sable between in chief two eagles displayed of the last and in base on a mount Vert a hind trippant Proper (Waley). |crest = 1st a buck's head couped Argent attired Or holding in the mouth a rose slipped Gules the neck encircled by a wreath of oak Proper between four barrulets Gules (Cohen); 2nd out of a bush of fern a hind's head Proper in the mouth a rose Argent stalked and leaved also Proper (Waley). |motto = All For The Best <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=2000}}</ref>}}

{{s-start}} {{s-reg|uk-bt}} {{s-bef | before=Bernard Waley-Cohen}} {{s-ttl | title=Baronet<br>'''(of Honeymead)''' | years=1991–present}} {{s-inc}} {{s-end}}

==References== {{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waley-Cohen, Stephen}} Category:1946 births Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Category:English theatre managers and producers Category:English businesspeople Category:English Jews Category:Daily Mail journalists Category:People associated with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Category:Living people 2 Stephen