Sir Stephen Harry Waley-Cohen, 2nd Baronet (born 22 June 1946)"Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, Bt Authorised Biography", Debrett's People of Today. Retrieved 1 December 2012. 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."Victoria Palace Licenses AudienceView Ticketing Solution" , AudienceView Ticketing Company, 22 January 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2012."Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen On ... Producing the Ultimate Long-runner", Whatsonstage.com, 25 November 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2012. He was chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) Council."RADA Governance and Advisors", RADA from 2007 to 2021. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
Career Business Waley-Cohen was a financial journalist, at the Daily Mail from 1968 to 1973, and a founder director and publisher at Euromoney Publications (which later became Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC)Peter Truell, "Can 2 Magazine Cultures Find Happiness Together?", The New York Times , 6 September 1997. Retrieved 1 December 2012. from 1969 to 1983.
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,, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, 16 February 1992. Retrieved 1 December 2012. director of the Stewart Wrightson Members Agency Ltd 1987 to 1998 and chairman of Policy Portfolio plc from 1993 to 1998."Bottom Line: Unsuitable Portfolio for investors", The Independent, 2 July 1993. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
He was chairman of First Call Group plc from 1996 to 1998 and of Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspaper plc from 1998 to 1999. He was a director of Exeter Preferred Capital Investment Trust plc 1992–2003.
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.
In 1989 he became managing director of the Victoria Palace Theatre, and took on the management of the St. Martin's Theatre. He managed the Vaudeville Theatre from 1996 to 2001Mark Fox, "Theatres – Vaudeville Theatre", Nimax Theatres. Retrieved 1 December 2012. and the Savoy from 1997 to 2005.Alistair Smith, "ATG buys Savoy Theatre", The Stage, 12 October 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2012. In April 2007 he took over the Ambassadors Theatre. In 2014, he sold the Victoria Palace to Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. Cameron Mackintosh buys West End’s Victoria Palace and Ambassadors theatres
He became the producer of The Mousetrap in 1994. During his time managing the St. Martin's Theatre, he had got to know The Mousetrap's producer, Peter Saunders. Waley-Cohen said, "When [Saunders] wanted to retire at the age of 80, he picked up the phone to me".Valerie Lawson, "The Mousetrap a veritable money trap", The Australian Financial Review, 8 July 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012. 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.
In 1997, Waley-Cohen launched the education charity, Mousetrap Theatre Projects."Mousetrap Theatre Projects – History", Mousetrap Theatre Projects, 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012. 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.
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),"About RADA Brief History" , RADA. Retrieved 1 December 2012. and Chairman of RADA's Development Board. 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.Nuala Calvi, "ATG’s Squire elected SOLT president", The Stage, 28 June 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2012. He was a Trustee of The Theatres Trust from 1998 to 2004.
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."ICA In Israel", JCA Charitable Foundation. Retrieved 1 December 2012. In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev."Five Outstanding Individuals Honored", Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Summer 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
He was chairman of the British-American Project executive committee from 1989 to 92, and continued to have a role in its subsequent development."Our History Cont'd", BAP. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
He is currently a trustee of the Campaign for the Arts."Our people", Campaign for the Arts. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
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
References