Anthea Peers
President, Christie’s Europe, Middle East and Africa
Anthea Peers joined Christie’s in 2006 and has built a diversified career, most recently holding the position of Global Managing Director of Private Sales since 2019, an area of the business which had its best year to date in 2021, leading the market with US$1.7 billion in private sales.
Prior to this, Anthea was Client Strategy Director for the Classic Art group, and led plans for the then new Classic Week series of sales, now a regular sales fixture globally at Christie’s.
In her leadership role for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, based in London, Anthea works with Christie’s dynamic team of regional presidents, alongside Bonnie Brennan, President of the Americas, Cécile Verdier, President of France, and Francis Belin, President of Asia Pacific.
Ben Gore
Chief Operation Officer, Executive Management Group, Christie’s
Appointed Chief Operating Officer in June 2020, Ben has global responsibilities spanning multiple aspects of Christie’s business and strategic development.
Prior to joining Christie’s in 2014, Ben’s career spanned both the institutional and hedge fund sides of the investment management field, with a specialism in global consumer equities. He brought to Christie’s his expertise in risk-adjusted financial decision-making and capital deployment, first in the role of International Commercial Director and subsequently adding the other areas of the finance organisation to his remit.
Closely involved in all major consignment strategies, Ben also has direct responsibility for the Technology, Data and Operations teams and oversees both Christie’s Art Finance and Christie’s Ventures, two relatively new but fast-growing arms of the business. Ben sits on the Christie’s Board of Directors, holds an MA in Economics & Politics from the University of Edinburgh and is a CFA Charterholder.
Marcus Foz
Global Managing Director 20th/21st Century Art Department, Christie’s
Marcus Fox, a 24-year veteran of the auction world is the Global Managing Director of the 20th/21st Century Art department. He is responsible for the management and business strategy for seven departments, including Post-War and Contemporary Art, Impressionist and Modern Art, Design, Photographs and Prints. He works closely with the Chairman’s Office, Client Strategy, Marketing and the specialists to maximize opportunities for this category across all sales channels.
Marcus joined Christie’s in 2018 from Sotheby’s where he held a series of senior leadership positions, most recently, Senior Vice President, Head of Contemporary Business, Americas. Previously, he was Head of Private Sales, Americas.
Shashi Menon
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of UNXD
Shashi Menon is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of UNXD, a global leader in bridging luxury and web3. UNXD links partners with the world’s leading luxury brands to craft web3 native products and experiences, both digitally and in real life. UNXD’s roster of partner brands include Dolce & Gabbana, Jacob & Co., and a slate of others to be announced. UNXD’s pioneering collections with Dolce & Gabbana—2021’s Collezione Genesi and 2022’s DGFamily—have generated nearly 10,000 ETH and are widely regarded as catalysts of the luxury/fashion NFT movement.
Shashi is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nervora, one of the Middle East’s premier publishers of luxury, lifestyle, and technology content, including Vogue Arabia and Wired Middle East.
In 2012, Nervora partnered with Condé Nast to launch its first fashion and beauty publication in the Middle East. In 2016, Nervora launched Vogue Arabia, in a historic, digital-first manner. This was followed by Vogue Arabia’s print launch in March 2017. Over the past five years, Vogue Arabia has been one of the world’s most widely discussed luxury publications, with its content seen by over 300 million people globally. In 2019, Nervora launched Wired Middle East.
Born and raised in the USA, Mr. Menon has lived or done business in over 20 countries across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Her Excellency Sarah bint Yousif Al Amiri
Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology and Chairwoman of UAE Space Agency
Her Excellency Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri is the UAE Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology, Chairman of the Emirates Schools Establishment and the UAE Space Agency, and the General Secretariat of Emirates Research and Development Council.
Within her new role as a minister for Public Education, she leads the efforts of the Emirates Schools Establishment toward the elevation of quality and efficiency of public education in the UAE.
Within her role in Advanced Technology, her Excellency spearheads the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s efforts to empower the adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and promote research and development to create new industries that drive the shift towards a knowledge economy. This, in turn, contributes to the overall mandate of the Ministry to strengthen the UAE’s industrial base, ensure in-country value, and raise the competitiveness of local industries.
As Chairman of the Space Agency, Her Excellency is responsible for overseeing the Agency’s mandate of guiding the space sector, ensuring its contribution to the national economy and to the UAE’s sustainable development. Her Excellency is also the Chairwoman of the Emirates Scientists Council, Chairwoman of the Dubai Future Academy Board of Trustees, Chairwoman of The Emirates College for Advanced Education, and she served previously as the Deputy Project Manager and Science Lead of the Emirates Mars Mission (Hope) at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) before going on to be appointed Chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency.
Previously, Her Excellency was the Head of R&D at MBRSC, where she established the centre’s knowledge management, strategic research and product assurance functionalities. She was also involved in DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2, and in the establishment of the KhalifaSat program. In 2014, Her Excellency was tasked with and led the establishment of the Advanced Aerial Systems Program, where she championed development efforts on a prototype High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite. The project resulted in a successful 24-hour flight of the unmanned vehicle, which recorded the highest altitude of any aircraft over UAE airspace.
In 2015, the World Economic Forum honoured Her Excellency as one of its 50 Young Scientists for her contributions to science, technology and engineering.
H.E. Sarah Al Amiri holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in computer engineering from the American University of Sharjah.
Devang Thakkar
Global Head of Christie’s Ventures
Devang Thakkar is a multi-disciplinary technology and business leader who currently invests in and advises a portfolio of companies in the luxury and tech space on a range of areas, including product, innovation, marketing and fundraising. In his current role, Devang serves as the Global Head of Christie’s Ventures, leading a new enterprise through which Christie’s engages with earlier stage companies through direct investment and both brand support and market access. New venture opportunities focus on early-stage technology and FinTech companies, built by proven-track record founders, which can apply solutions to opportunities or challenges in our market.
From 2015–19, Devang Thakkar was VP of Consumer Marketplace at Artsy, the world’s leading and largest online platform for collecting and discovering art. He led Artsy’s efforts in enhancing the art buying and selling experience with the goal of increasing participation and expanding the overall art market. Devang also oversaw the build out of Artsy’s auctions business, providing buyers and sellers access to art auctions across the globe presented by leading auction houses.
Before joining Artsy in 2015, Devang spent over a decade at Microsoft in Seattle where he contributed to the development of major operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 10 and product lines, such as Bing apps and MSN. His last product at Microsoft was Microsoft Teams. Devang holds MAs in economics and computer science from Columbia University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Washington. He is also an artist—painting and maintaining a studio practice.
Amir Soleymani
Collector, Gallerist, Owner of Adelia Art Gallery
Amir ‘Mondoir’ Soleymani is a well-renowned and respected collector, gallerist and art advocate. As a forerunner of the Digital art space, he has played an indisputable role in nurturing and raising the NFT space to its present level of prominence.
Amir’s physical art collection is ample and extensive, containing a wide array of pieces from history-makers of all ages. Amir has also been curating an impressive selection of NFTs and digital collectibles of over 2,000 pieces.
Some of his most prized NFT assets include the genesis pieces of Time, Forbes, Life, and many more pieces from industry-defining collections, including Blake Kathryn/Paris Hilton, Manchester City, and Adidas/Prada and well-respected artists such as Victor Langlois aka ‘FEWCiOUS’, Ryan Wilson aka ‘ThankYouX’, DeeKay Kwon and Cory Van Lew amongst others.
He currently owns Adelia Art Gallery in Liverpool, UK, and is opening his second and the region’s first of its kind NFT gallery in Downtown Dubai.
Yayoi Shionoiri
Executive Director of Chris Burden Estate and Nancy Rubins Studio
Yayoi Shionoiri is an art lawyer who supports artists. She serves as Executive Director to the Estate of Chris Burden and the Studio of Nancy Rubins, where she is responsible for stewarding Burden’s art historical legacy and promoting Rubins’ artistic practice.
She also serves as U.S. Alliance Partner to City Lights Law, a Japanese law firm that represents creators, innovators, and artists; an Outside Board Director to Startbahn, an art x blockchain company that is attempting to bring greater reliability to transactions in the art ecosystem; and as Legal Advisor to KLKTN, a startup focused on engendering community among performers and their supporters through NFTs.
In the past, Yayoi has served as General Counsel to Artsy, Associate General Counsel of the Guggenheim Museum, and Legal Advisor to Takashi Murakami. She has degrees from Harvard University, Cornell Law School, and Columbia University. Yayoi has written about, and presented on legal issues related to art NFTs throughout the world. She serves as a Board Director to the Asia Art Archive in America and an Advisory Panelist to the Serpentine Gallery’s Legal Lab.
Dr Ridha Moumni
Deputy Chairman, Christie’s Middle East & North Africa
Dr Ridha Moumni is an art and archaeology historian, currently Deputy Chairman of Middle East and North Africa at Christie’s. He earned his PhD at La Sorbonne University and was the first Tunisian fellow of the Villa Medici. Dr Moumni has an academic and professional specialisation in antiquity and modern art. He curated exhibitions of photographs and early modern and modern art, and published on collecting practice and artists in 19th and 20th century North Africa. Prior to joining Christie’s, he was an Aga Khan Fellow at the Department of Art History of Harvard University.
Meagan Kelly Horsman
Managing Director, Christie’s Middle East and North Africa
Meagan Kelly Horsman is the Managing Director of Christie’s Middle East, having joined the team in May 2022. Based in the UAE since 2010, Meagan has worked in both the primary and secondary market, starting her career at Bonhams, and specialises in modern and contemporary art from the Arab World, North Africa and Iran.
Meagan’s extensive experience also includes collection management and development for some of the most important private collections in the region. Meagan has curated numerous exhibitions at institutions across the UAE, delivered short courses relating to the art sector and written for arts publications in the region. Meagan holds an MA in History of Art from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
Mira Lane
Senior Director in Technology & Society, Google
Mira Lane is a Senior Director in Technology & Society at Google. Mira’s focus is on showcasing the inspiring potential for advanced technologies to benefit people and societies through compelling storytelling, experiences, and other creative outputs in a socio-technically grounded, and clear-eyed manner. She focuses primarily on AI and emerging technologies.
Prior to Google, Mira was the Partner Director and founder of Ethics & Society at Microsoft. There, Mira ran a multidisciplinary team responsible for guiding technical and experience innovation towards ethical, responsible, and sustainable outcomes.
Mira serves on the Australian National University’s Humanizing Machine Intelligence Board and has advised businesses on strategies towards responsible innovation, including government organisations such as the U.S. Department of Defense. She was highlighted in LightHouse3’s 12 Brilliant Women in AI & Ethics to watch in 2018. Mira’s technology career has focused on incubation of new product concepts, human-computer interfaces, and bringing products to the market. She was one of the founding leaders in creating Bing, as well as Microsoft Teams—Microsoft’s fastest-growing business app ever. Mira holds numerous patents across platforms and collaborative interfaces. She has a background in art, computer science, and mathematics.
Amin Al Zarouni
CEO of Bedu
A visionary at the forefront of the UAE’s tech scene, Amin Al Zarouni, CEO of Bedu, has a proven track record of success in empowering the UAE’s public and private entities with innovative, personalised data driven and people-centric digital solutions.
At Bedu, Al Zarouni aims to revolutionise the utilization of web3.0 and contributes heavily to the future of the metaverse globally. He has joined the founding team at Bedu with a vision to make the company a unicorn in the web3.0 space.
Lukas Amacher
Managing Director, 1of1 Collection Gallery
As the Curator and Managing Director of the 1of1 Collection, Lukas Amacher runs one of the premier NFT collections in the world, focussing exclusively on digital art. The 1of1 Collection and some of its works have recently been involved in projects at Castello di Rivoli in Italy, the MoMA in New York and M+ in Hong Kong.
Dr Omar Kholeif
Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE
Dr Omar Kholeif is an author, curator, broadcaster, and the avatar of Dr. O— a polymath who lives in the metaverse. A leading commentator on art and digital culture, Kholeif is the author of dozens of books, which have sold more than 100,000 copies in English alone, curator of over 60 exhibitions, and founder of artpost21, which supports art and social justice in the age of the ‘meta’ metaverse.
John Burman
Head of Business Development, PROTO
John Burman is PROTO Head of Business Development, based in New York City. John’s previous roles include Forbes Special Projects Director, reporting to Tim Forbes. He also served in various positions in Los Angeles at The Hollywood Reporter, including senior management roles as International General Manager and Executive Director, Star Power/Director Power. In addition, John has worked in cybersecurity in business development. John also serves as an advisor to Capalino+Company. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
Mudassir Sheikha
CEO and Co-Founder of Careem
Mudassir Sheikha started his career with Trilogy Software before joining Brience, a San Francisco-based mobile experience startup, at the height of the dot-com bubble in March 2000. Mudassir then joined the founding team of mobile testing and monitoring startup, DeviceAnywhere, where amongst other things, he led its offshore development centre in Pakistan. DeviceAnywhere was acquired by Keynote Systems, and Mudassir joined management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Dubai.
In 2012, he left to build something big and meaningful with ex-McKinsey colleague Magnus Olsson. Their mission was to simplify and improve the lives of people in the Middle East region and build an awesome organisation that inspires. They founded Careem in 2012 and today, it is the leading technology platform for the region, operating in more than 98 cities in 10 countries, with more than 1,400 colleagues and over 2 million ‘Captains’ (drivers).
Mudassir graduated from the University of Southern California with dual degrees in economics and computer science, and obtained his master’s in computer science with a specialisation in Databases from Stanford University.
Graham Sheldon
Chief Product Officer, UiPath
Graham Sheldon is the Chief Product Officer for UiPath. He is passionate about driving the company’s vision of accelerating human achievement through AI-powered automation. With over 20 years of experience in product, design, research, and engineering, Graham has a deep understanding of the potential for technology to unlock human creativity and productivity.
Prior to joining UiPath, Graham spent two decades at Microsoft, where he drove product and engineering on Bing, Dynamics, Windows, and Office. Most recently he was the CVP of Product for Microsoft Teams, one of the fastest growing business applications with over 270 million users worldwide.
At UiPath, he is leading the charge to provide comprehensive automation solutions for end-to-end business processes and is excited to be a part of the team that is driving this ambitious vision forward.
In addition to his professional pursuits, Graham is a husband, father of three, instrument-rated pilot, a cappella singer, investor, and marathoner. He and his family reside in Washington, where they enjoy skiing, soccer, and traveling in their free time.
Keith A. Grossman
President, Enterprise at MoonPay
Keith A. Grossman is a global leader in the rapidly evolving world of web3 where he leads the mass adoption of these new technologies for MoonPay, the leading organization for web3 payments, infrastructure and strategy and ideation.
Previously, Keith was the President of TIME, where he led TIME’s web3 endeavours and the organization since 2019. TIME’s web3 strategy modernised the brand, producing eight figures of profit as it expanded from community building to B2B partnerships to enabling several NFT creators to develop their unique IP into animated series for TV with TIME Studios.
Prior to TIME, Keith served as the Global Chief Revenue Officer for Bloomberg Media where he was responsible for the growth of their various media platforms. He was also part of the core team to launch QuickTake by Bloomberg, a 24/7 social, mobile news platform. And, prior to Bloomberg, Keith was the Associate Publisher of WIRED as well as Ars Technica where he won two Project Isaac Awards for best Digital Inventions for his work on the WIRED Tablet Edition and Ars Accelerator.
He is a Board Member of New York Cares, New York’s largest volunteer network connecting individuals within their philanthropic passions and, previously, was an Adjunct Professor at NYU.
Keith is a graduate of Cornell University and currently resides in New York City with his wife, Catherine, and daughter, Ellie.
Audrey Ou
Co-founder and CEO TRLab
Audrey Ou is CEO and Co-Founder of TRLab, a curated global platform that fuses NFT technology with fine art expertise. Along with her co-founder, Christie’s Deputy Chairman Xin Li-Cohen, Audrey leads business development, strategy, and artist partnerships for TRLab.
Audrey co-founded TRLab with a mission to onboard the next generation of art enthusiasts into the global collecting community through innovations in web3 and blockchain technology. Her background in fine art bridges Eastern and Western cultures, and she has been recognised as a rising talent by Apollo Magazine (2022 40 Under 40 for Asia Pacific), Tatler Asia magazine (2022 Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow), and was recently inducted into Forbes prestigious 30 Under 30 Class for 2023. She is a frequent speaker on topics at the intersection of fine art, education, and web3.
Prior to TRLab, Audrey was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Olive Capital, focusing on consumer technology. Her involvement in contemporary art derives from her family’s engagement with Rockbund Art Museum since its formation in 2010, where she assisted with solo exhibitions of artists such as Cai Guo-Qiang and collaborations such as the Hugo Boss Asia Art Project. Audrey is a member of the Asia Art Committee and Young Collectors Committee at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
She holds a B.A. in History from Princeton University and a M.S. in Applied Analytics from Columbia University.
Beatriz Ordovas
International Director, Head of Digital for Europe and a Specialist in the 20th Century Art department, Christie’s
Beatriz Ordovas is an International Director, Head of Digital for Europe and a Specialist in the 20th Century Art department, Christie’s. She was based in London for thirteen years, where her last role was as Head of Private Sales for EMERI. Since moving back to Spain in 2018 she has been responsible for client coverage across Europe, with a particular focus on Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Latin America, drawing on her tenured expertise in Post-War and Contemporary art. Beatriz leads the company efforts in Iberia for 20th Century art, whilst retaining her international responsibilities and leading the company’s digital strategy in the continent. Her expertise and passion on this field have helped the company play an instrumental role securing key works like Refik Anadol Living Architecture: Casa Batllo.
Beatriz is a regular speaker and contributor at round tables and conferences focused on digital art, both in Europe and globally.
Vanessa Barboni Hallik
Founder and CEO, Another Tomorrow
Vanessa Barboni Hallik is the founder and CEO of Another Tomorrow, a B Corp Certified luxury brand with a digitised product platform featuring Authenticated Resale, supply-chain transparency and an on-ramp to web3 applications. She is also an investor in early-stage companies with strong ESG commitments positioned to catalyse systemic change. Vanessa serves on the Board of the Accountability Counsel and Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
Vanessa has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Forbes and Vogue for her work, and is one of Worth Magazine’s Worthy100.
Prior to founding Another Tomorrow, Vanessa was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where she held several leadership roles in the emerging markets institutional securities business, served as a Trustee on the Board of the Morgan Stanley Foundation and represented the firm at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Bambo Sofola
Partner General Manager of Software Engineering for Windows Silicon and Systems Integration, Microsoft
Bambo Sofola is the Partner General Manager of Software Engineering for Windows Silicon and Systems Integration within Microsoft’s Devices and Experiences group.
He develops client silicon software strategies and leads partnerships and engineering efforts with Windows platform teams. Bambo is responsible for building and managing teams that develop long-term, end-to-end Windows value propositions. His focus spans product development and technology, with silicon partners for hardware devices, from design through go-to-market.
Bambo continues to devote his career toward empowering technologists and entrepreneurs, on a global scale through enhancing engineering solutions, cultivating talent, and fostering differentiated partnerships. He led the Azure Global Emerging Markets team and enhanced Microsoft’s success in the cloud industry; within emerging markets worldwide. Bambo continues to be inspired to improve lives through innovation and accelerated technology maturation; “Together, we can create a game-changing, worldwide impact and drive numerous industries and communities to realize their full potential through leveraging technology.”
Hadley Gamble
Anchor & Senior International Correspondent, CNBC
Hadley Gamble is CNBC’s Anchor and Senior International Correspondent covering energy, geopolitics, and financial markets.
Her October 2021 interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin made global headlines as the president denied using energy as a weapon, reaffirmed his alliance with Beijing, claimed his country is in an arms race with the United States and discussed the lack of trust he has with NATO.
Hadley has covered the Russia-Ukraine conflict from Brussels to Kyiv to Moscow, speaking to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson live on CNBC. Her interview with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, live from the tarmac on February 24th was the first comment from a Ukrainian official following Russia’s invasion.
In addition to covering energy markets and politics, Hadley anchors Capital Connection from CNBC’s Middle East Headquarters based within Abu Dhabi Global Markets. Hadley was the first international journalist to report live from Saudi Aramco following the September 14 terror attacks that knocked production offline by millions of barrels per day. She was also the first journalist to speak live to a Saudi official following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Hadley also presents CNBC’s popular documentary franchise, Access: Middle East where she speaks to world leaders, international CEOs and philanthropists. Past guests include Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and then- U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Hadley regularly reports for CNBC from the World Economic Forum in Davos, moderating panels and speaking to world leaders.
She is a passionate advocate for women in the workplace and their advancement around the world. Hadley moderated the first ever women’s business forum in Saudi Arabia and provided exclusive content to CNBC as the Kingdom lifted its decades-old driving ban.
An experienced journalist, Hadley has also worked for ABC News and Fox News in Washington, DC producing news programmes and covering national and international political events, including the 2008 Presidential Debates, Election Night 2008 and the Inauguration of US President Barack Obama.
AC
Portfolio Manager
AC is a Generative Art collector and a partner at 6529 Capital, where he runs the Generative Art desk. 6529 Capital is the largest NFT fund in the web3 space, stewarding some of the best NFTs in the world. AC is an active champion of the Generative Art movement and can be found sharing his knowledge at @acthecollector.
