TOMORROW: Part two of our Top 100 series features the region's key business figures '“ see The Yorkshire Post on Tuesday.

Simon Armitage: Poet, playwright and novelist.

Last year, the poet, playwright and novelist from Marsden was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry. The UK’s official Millennium Poet in 2000, Armitage has left a permanent mark on his home county with the Stanza Stones Trail, which runs through 47 miles of the Pennine region and which feature his verses carved in stone by the artist Pip Hall.

Syima Aslam and Irna Qureshi: Founders of the Bradford Literature Festival.

The bookworm and filmophile decided to combine their passions to create the Bradford Literature Festival, now in its second year. Celebrating literature, diversity and culture, the aim of the festival is to help take literacy out of the classroom, by inspiring parents and children through innovative festival and outreach programmes.

Bryony Bond: Creative Director of The Tetley, Leeds.

Appointed to the role at the city’s newest and largest centre for contemporary art earlier this year, Bryony Bond took over from founders Pippa Hale and Kerry Harker. Previously curator of temporary exhibitions at Manchester’s Whitworth gallery, as a board member for the Leeds-based commissioning body Pavilion, she has strong connections with the city’s art scene. Her vision for The Tetley includes a residency programme which would see artists making work at the space year round, with audiences able to interact with them and for artists to work with communities.

Iain Bloomfield: Artistic Director, Theatre in the Mill

Bradford’s Theatre in the Mill might not be Yorkshire’s biggest venue, but it’s certainly not short of ambition. He moved to Bradford in 1997 where he developed and ran the Alhambra Studio. Appointed Fellow in Theatre at the University of Bradford in 2003, Bloomfield is a great believer in the power of the arts to transform individuals and communities.

James Brining: Artistic Director, West Yorkshire Playhouse.

It is four years since Leeds-born James Brining was appointed artistic director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, marking a return home from Scotland. He initially moved to Glasgow to take up the post of Artistic director with TAG Theatre Company, before moving to Dundee Rep Theatre in 2003. He has been instrumental in the Playhouse’s Bronte season which is currently showing a reimagining of Charlotte Bronte’s novel Villette. Brining is also overseeing a bold £14m redevelopment of the venue.

Damian Cruden: Artistic Director, York Theatre Royal.

The theatre reopened in spring after its major £4.1m redevelopment, giving Damian Cruden a platform for more of what he does so well. He took up the post in York in 1997 and his standout production to date is an adaptation of The Railway Children. Featuring a real steam locomotive, it was staged for two consecutive years at the National Railway Museum and transferring to London’s Waterloo and the John Street Roundhouse in Toronto.

David Edmunds : Artistic Director and Executive Producer, Dep Arts.

A key player in Liverpool’s Capital of Culture in 2008, Edmunds founded Dep Arts in 2005 to work with theatre, dance and performance companies to stage world class events. The company has also been a driving force behind Try, which joined forces with Leeds City Council to celebrate the arrival of the Rugby World Cup.

Victoria Firth: Director at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.

Taking over the reins a decade ago, Firth is credited with turning around the theatre’s fortunes. Staging edgy, avant garde productions alongside more commercial shows, she has also spearheaded a fundraising campaign, to safeguard good drama and protect the historic theatre building. The theatre was also the lead partner in a Kirklees consortium which successfully bid for a £2 million grant from Arts Council England, as part of their Creative People and Places programme. Central to the programme, called Creative Scene is the involvement of local people and organisations.

John Godber: Playwright, director and screenwriter.

After many years at Hull Truck Theatre, Godber moved to Wakefield Theatre Royal in 2011. He is a member of the Directors Guild and one of the most performed writers in the English language. A visiting professor of drama at Hull University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, his best-known work includes Bouncers, Up n’ Under and Teechers. His screenplay My Kingdom for a Horse was nominated for an Alternative BAFTA award.

Martin Green: CEO, Hull UK City of Culture 2017.

Green was the man behind the impressive London 2012 Olympic ceremonies, which successfully extinguished any remaining cynicism surrounding the Games, by injecting an early note of optimism into proceedings. Come 2017 he will lift the curtain on a year-long programme of artistic events which could bring more than £60m into Hull’s economy and help generate 7,500 new jobs.

Philippa Gregory: Author.

Regularly described as the Queen of Historical fiction, Gregory is a master in the art of the page turner. Based in North Yorkshire, her 2001 novel The Other Boleyn Girl was adapted for both film and television. Nothing short of prolific, her novels breathe life into women who previously were afforded little more than a footnote in the history books. In 2013 her novel The White Queen was turned into a 10-part adaptation for the BBC.

Richard Hawley: Singer/songwriter.

The Sheffield-born 48-year-old recorded his first album in 2000. His seventh album Standing at the Sky’s Edge was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Other work includes collaborations with the likes of Arctic Monkeys and Manic Street Preachers. Refreshingly left of mainstream, his latest album Hollow Meadows was released to impressive reviews.

Diane Howse: Artist and curator.

Although she rarely uses the title, contemporary artist Diane Howse is also the Countess of Harewood. She opened the Terrace Gallery at the stately home in the 1980s and has curated hundreds of exhibitions, including one in a disused apartment block in Leeds. She also took work to two of the county’s most iconic venues - Salts Mill in Saltaire and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

Alan Lane: Artistic Director, Slung Low.

Lane has earned a reputation for staging ambitious, original productions in unusual places. Recently he has pulled off Blood + Chocolate, a huge production in York based on the Rowntree factory sending chocolate tins to every soldier from York fighting at the front in World War One, The White Whale, inspired by Moby Dick, on the Leeds waterfront and to mark the Rugby World Cup in Leeds.

Lisa LeFeuvre: Head of Sculpture Studies at the Henry Moore Institute.

Before taking up the role in 2010, LeFeuvre taught at numerous academic organisations, including the Royal College of Art. Between 2005 and 2009 she directed the contemporary art programme at the National Maritime Museum. In demand as a guest lecturer, she is also the author of several acclaimed essays.

Richard Mantle: Director General, Opera North.

At the helm of Opera North since 1994, Richard Mantle began his career in the world of commerce. He had a spell at English National Opera before joining Opera North as general director, where his leadership has seen the company broaden its repertoire. In 2013 he became Deputy Lieutenant for West Yorkshire and was awarded the OBE in 2014 for services to music.

Simon Wallis: Director, The Hepworth Wakefield.

The awarding of an OBE in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List recognised Wallis’s contribution to the visual arts over the past seven years at The Hepworth in Wakefield, developing an ambitious programme of exhibitions. As the gallery’s first employee, he helped develop the vision, business plan and programme, while advocating for the project regionally and nationally. He is also a driving force behind the new Hepworth Prize for Sculpture, a biennial £30,000 award open to all artists.

Andrew McMillan: Poet.

Winner of the 2015 Guardian First Book Award, the very first time it had ever been awarded for a collection of poems, McMillan’s Physical has also won and been shortlisted for countless other literary awards. A selection of his work can be found in anthologies such as The Salt Book of Younger Poets.

Peter Murray: Director, Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Murray founded the YSP, at West Bretton, Wakefield, in 1977 and has overseen its growth to become one of the world’s leading sculpture parks. Awarded a CBE in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours list, in 2014 he and the team saw the park named the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year.

David Nixon: Artistic director, Northern Ballet.

He might be Canadian by birth, but having been artistic director of Northern Ballet since 2001, Nixon has been embraced and adopted by Leeds. It was under his leadership that the company moved into its impressive Quarry Hill headquarters and Nixon has added an array of new works to the repertoire, including the Gershwin extravaganza, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Three Musketeers.

Kate Rusby: Singer/Songwriter.

The singer dubbed ‘The Barnsley Nightingale’ is one of the folk scene’s most noted contemporary artists and one of the few to have been nominated for the Mercury Prize. A regular headliner at festivals around the world, she has worked alongside a host of famous names, including an unlikely duet with pop star Ronan Keating. More recently she and the rest of the Rusby clan launched their own festival, Underneath the Stars, at Cannon Hall in Barnsley.

Barrie Rutter: Actor and founder of Northern Broadsides Theatre.

Since its inception in 1992, Rutter has continued to develop and grow the Halifax-based theatre company. Known for its innovative productions spanning everything from Greek tragedy to modern comedy, it was his production of Othello with Lenny Henry that gave the company the headlines it richly deserved.

Sally Wainwright: Screenwriter and director.

Born in Huddersfield, the Bafta-winning screenwriter may no longer live in Yorkshire any more, but her ties to her home county remain strong. From Scott and Bailey to Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley, Wainwright has brought a distinctly northern voice to the small screen in recent years and with a knack for natural dialogue and sharp character observation she is one of television’s most in-demand writers.

Jonathan Watkins: Choreographer.

Barnsley-born Watkins trained at the Royal Ballet School and has staged a number of impressive productions in Yorkshire. Bringing a dance adaptation of Kes to the Sheffield Crucible last year he turned his attention to another literary classic. Working with Northern Ballet, 1984 was a critical success and again showed that Watkins is one of the dance world’s brightest talents. His choreography credits include the Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera House.

Sharon Watson: Director, Phoenix.

Announced as the chair of Leeds’s European Capital of Culture bid for 2023, Watson is determined to put the city on the map. A graduate of the London School of Contemporary Dance, she first joined Phoenix Dance in the late 1980s and in 2009 was appointed its artistic director. She has been behind a number of major commissions, including Ghost Peloton for the Tour de France and a large scale performance for the RFL Challenge Cup Final at Wembley.