Sir Howard Hugh Panter is a British theatre impresario and theatre operator. With his wife Rosemary Squire he ran the

Ambassador Theatre Group The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) is a major international theatre organisation headquartered in the United Kingdom, with offices in Woking (head office), London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne. ATG's key operations comprise three in ...

from about 1995 until 2016; they remain directors and shareholders of the company. When they left the active management of ATG, they bought

Trafalgar Studios Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its ...

(the former Whitehall Theatre), which became the centre of a new company, Trafalgar Entertainment. In a guide to "the 100 most influential people in UK theatre" published by ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...

'', Panter and Squire were placed first each year from 2010 to 2016. In 2013 they were placed first in the theatre section of the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' 'Power 1000'. Panter received a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

in the

2013 Birthday Honours The 2013 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of ...

Career

In 1991, with Sir Eddie Kulukundis and the brothers Peter and John Beckwith, Panter became a director of a company which bought the

Duke of York's Theatre The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre until her death in 1935. Designed by th ...

and in 1992 was renamed The Duke Of York's Theatre (Holdings) Limited. It later bought the Ambassadors Theatre, and was again renamed, to

. In 2016 Panter and Squire ceased to manage the Ambassador Theatre Group. They bought

(the former Whitehall Theatre) from the group, and made it the centre of a new company, Trafalgar Entertainment.

Other roles

Panter is on the development board of

LAMDA LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was ...

, and was chairman of the

Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

for ten years. In March 2020 he was appointed chair of The Birmingham Rep Theatre. He is a director of Rocky Horror Company Limited.

Reception

Panter and Squire have received a number of joint awards and recognitions: * 2008

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

"Entrepreneur of the Year": regional finalist * 2010

Evening Standard Awards The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standa ...

, "London's 1000 Most Influential People: Theatre": first place * 2012 ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 20 ...

'' Awards, "250 of the most influential people in Greater Manchester" * 2010–2016, ''

'' "Top 100 People In British Theatre": first place * 2019 Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Woking. .n.(17 June 2019)
Long serving members of Woking community honoured by council
Eagle Radio. Archived 5 August 2019. Panter received a knighthood in 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours for "services to theatre".

Personal life

Panter met Rosemary Squire at the Queen's Theatre in London, where both were working during his production of ''

And a Nightingale Sang ''And a Nightingale Sang'' is a play by British playwright C.P. Taylor (1977) and commissioned by Newcastle upon Tyne's Live Theatre Company. The play was made into a TV program in 1989 by Jack Rosenthal for Tyne Tees Television. Described as a ...

'' with

Patricia Routledge Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, (; born 17 February 1929) is an English actress, singer and broadcaster. For her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC sitcom '' Keeping Up Appearances'' (1990–1995), she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Awar ...

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English film, television and voice actor, director, narrator and writer. He was twice nominated for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his roles in ''A Room with a View'' (19 ...

was his

best man A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...

at their wedding.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panter, Howard Living people Knights Bachelor British theatre managers and producers People educated at Clayesmore School Year of birth missing (living people)