Overview
Donald McGarva is the group chief executive officer of CinemaNext, a role he took up in November 2024. He is based in Cambridge. Since October 2024 he has also been the founder and chief executive of Rteria Ltd, and since March 2022 a governor of Anglia Ruskin University.
He spent from September 2010 to July 2024 as group chief executive officer of Aferian plc, and continued with the company as a consultant to the board from July to October 2024. Before that he was senior vice president of DHL Asia Pacific and president of DHL Japan from 2004 to 2010, and chief technical officer of Microgen and managing director of Microgen Technologies from 2003 to 2004. From 2000 to 2003 he was president and representative director for Japan at Celestica.
McGarva joined ICL in 1987 as production and quality manager, and was seconded to Fujitsu Japan from 1992 to 1994. He then held roles at Fujitsu as director of product management and as country director of ICL Japan until 2000. He holds a B.Eng in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Strathclyde.
Career history
In the news
- If you could make one major improvement to your local cinema, where would you spend the money? Cinema United reports that North American exhibitors have reinvested $2.7 billion in their cinemas over the past two years. That is an encouraging commitment to the future of our industry. For an individual operator, deciding what to do first takes careful thought. The priority will undoubtedly depend on what that particular cinema needs. My starting point would be from the point of view of the cinemagoer buying the tickets and the
- Some genuinely good news for British cinema: after 21 months of uncertainty, the Prince Charles Cinema has signed a new 25-year lease with no break clause. Anyone who has spent time there will understand why so many people fought to protect it. The Prince Charles has built its reputation by doing things differently, from all-night marathons and unusual double bills to bringing classic films back to a packed auditorium. At a time when our industry talks constantly about giving people a reason to leave home, this cinema has spent
- New BBFC figures show that only around one in five animated films released in UK cinemas now receives a U certificate. Twenty-five years ago, it was roughly two in three. That is a big change, but perhaps it is also a correction. Animation has never really been a genre. It is a way of telling stories, and those stories can be made for children, adults or anyone in between. Living and working in Japan made that particularly clear to me. Animation was never tucked away as something only for children. It reached audiences of all ages
- It’s easy to forget the size of a cinema screen until you see six people standing behind one. One of our European teams sent me this photo from an installation they are working on. I know the scale of the projects we deliver, but seeing it like this really brings it home. At CinemaNext, we do a great deal of work on design and the technology that makes modern cinemas run. But we also build. Our teams are there on the scaffolding, installing the equipment and bringing the whole auditorium together. I’m proud of the scale of what we
- Will I see you there?😜 I’m just off to get my hair done🤠
- CinemaNext is proud to once again partner with Barco Cinema in supporting tonight's Irish Cinema Ball fundraiser for the Irish Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund (ICTBF) in Dublin. Hosted at the iconic Guinness Storehouse, the evening brings together customers, partners and colleagues from across the industry for a great cause, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you all. Thank you for your continued trust and friendship. Here’s to shaping the future of Irish cinema together! 🍿 Tony Hevey Donald McGarva Toni Purvis
- Tristan Campbell once had a home cinema in his garage. He has now decided to “scale it up a bit” by reopening a 470-seat cinema in Dumfries. I think the words “a bit” are doing some fairly heavy lifting there! The former Cinema closed in 2018. Tristan has spent two difficult years bringing it back, supported by people in the town who want to see films return to that auditorium. I love this story. It shows that a cinema can stop fitting the plans of a large operator without ceasing to matter to the community around it. With
- As I prepare my hives for winter it reminds me that the Bees are very good at letting you know when you have got something wrong. I started beekeeping because I was fascinated by it and I love honey, but I soon discovered that reading about a hive and opening one are two very different things! There is a saying in beekeeping that if you ask two beekeepers a question you will get three different answers! I have missed signs that seemed blindingly obvious afterwards. I have also walked away from an inspection wondering whether the bees
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