From the archive
15 Sep 2026
Alison Tickell founded Julie's Bicycle to work at the junction of culture and climate action, and she has led it ever since - first in Britain, then internationally. The charity exists to help the creative sector act on climate, giving artists and organisations the tools to do it. On 14 September the organisation announced that, after two decades in the role, its founder is stepping down as chief executive.
The work under her leadership was practical rather than rhetorical. The charity built what it describes as the most comprehensive, freely available collection of climate resources for the creative sector anywhere, worked alongside hundreds of companies and networks, and pressed cultural policy at an international level. The running premise was that systemic change needs everyone involved, and that an organisation leads by doing the thing itself before asking others to. The tools were given away, not sold.
The handover has been built as a bridge rather than a cliff edge. Tickell stays on part-time until the end of 2026, focused on international policy and advocacy, while managing director Laura Pando steps up as interim chief executive. The board, now chaired by Abbi Knell, has opened a full international recruitment and expects a permanent appointment by early 2027. Long-serving chair Tony Wadsworth is leaving too, after thirteen years.
The organisation turns twenty next year and plans a celebration in early 2027 to honour both departures and whatever comes next. The recruitment itself is being run openly, through a listing with People Beyond Profit, rather than by quiet approach - a detail in keeping with how the place has worked all along. What carries forward is less a personality than an archive of working tools that anyone in the arts can pick up for nothing.
A clean succession takes about a year and three moves: name an interim from inside the staff, keep the departing founder on part-time through the overlap, and run a genuinely open recruitment rather than a quiet tap on the shoulder. Announce the whole sequence at once, so no one is left guessing.
Julie's Bicycle · Read the source