Elan Closs Stephens

Elan Closs Stephens CBE (born 16 June 1948) is a Welsh educator and the Wales representative on the BBC Trust. She specialises in cultural and broadcasting policy. She also serves as a non-executive director of the Welsh Government's Board, led by the Permanent Secretary.

Born in Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley, Gwynedd, she was educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle and Somerville College, Oxford.

Stephens is Emeritus Professor of Communications and Creative Industries at Aberystwyth University’s Department of Theatre Film and Television. She also acts as Director of Enterprise and Knowledge Transfer to enable research projects with industry partners.

In 1998, the Department for Culture Media and Sport appointed Stephens chair of the S4C Authority, which was renewed for a second term until 2006. She was a Governor of the British Film Institute until 2007, and Chair of its Audit and Governance during the refurbishment of the Southbank Centre National Film Theatre. She chaired the Wales Advisory Committee of the British Council until 2011, and was a Board member of the Film Agency for Wales, and a Trustee/Board member of Arts & Business.

After chairing Chwarae Teg, a body that promotes the economic development of women in Wales, in 2009 she was appointed by the Welsh Assembly Government's Minister for Social Justice and Local Government to chair the Recovery Board for Isle of Anglesey County Council. In 2006, she chaired the Stephens Report on the financing and structure of the arts in Wales for the Welsh Assembly Government. A member of the Welsh Assembly Government's Strategic Delivery Performance Board, in October 2010 she was appointed a member for Wales of the BBC Trust.

Stephens was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2001, for services to broadcasting and the Welsh Language, and as High Sheriff of Dyfed for 2012/13.

Stephens has two grown-up children.