Inspiring Speakers

Sumayya Vally

Honorary Professor of Practice, Sumayya Vally is founder and Principal of Counterspace—an award-winning design, research, and pedagogical practice searching for expression for hybrid identities and territory, particularly for African and Islamic conditions, both rooted and diasporic. A World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and TIME100 Next list honoree, Vally has been identified as someone who will shape the future of architectural practice and canon. She serves on several boards through her interest in dynamic forms of archive, embodied heritage, and supporting new networks of knowledge in the arts. She was named Emerging Architect of the Year at the 2023 Dezeen Awards, and one of Financial Times Readers’ Women of the Year 2023.

Vally designed the twentieth Serpentine Pavilion in London, making her the youngest architect to receive the commission, which opened to critical acclaim as being one of the most radical pavilion designs to shape the commission. She was the Artistic Director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, for which she has been praised for putting forth an entirely new and decolonial definition of islamic art, one that is resonant with the lived and embodied practices and experiences of the Islamic world.

Practicing adjacent to the academy, Vally has received numerous awards and institutional honors for her contributions to the field, including an Honorary Professorship from UCL and a gold medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Paola Cattarin

Paola Cattarin joined Zaha Hadid Architects in 1999 and was made Director in 2019. Having worked on a wide range of projects around the world, her expertise spans across design, project management, and the overall management of the office.

Catarin studied at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), going on to gain her Dipl.Arch degree from La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy (1996).

She is currently leading the interior design of a luxury boutique hotel in Rome. In China, Cattarin is co-leading an 800,000 sqm masterplan project in Hangzhou Seamless City and leading an urban renewal project in the Buxin Towers, Shenzhen. She is also managing the interior design of a large shopping mall in Hangzhou, for developer Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP). Commissioned by the same client, she is the project co-director for the 2.6 million sqm Beijing Sub-Centre masterplan, as well as a new mixed-use development in Qianhai, Shenzhen.

Paola was project director for the new Salerno Maritime Terminal and has also been involved as architectural project manager for the Napoli-Afragola High Speed Train Station in Italy.

In addition, Paola has been actively working on several cultural projects such as the Nuragic and Contemporary Art in Cagliari and a number of cultural spaces within the Hangzhou Seamless City Masterplan.

Sheikha Reem Al Thani

Sheikha Reem Al-Thani is the Acting Deputy CEO of Exhibitions and Marketing as well as the Director of Central Exhibitions at Qatar Museums (QM). She leads a comprehensive team of museum professionals, which services all museums and galleries under the QM umbrella. Sheikha Reem Al-Thani also oversees the development and implementation of QM’s expansive schedule of exhibitions that brings world-class programming to Qatar and introduces Qatar’s culture and emerging art scene to the rest of the world. Most recently, she has overseen the development of several successful exhibitions, including Kaws: He Eats Alone, Making Doha: 1950-2030 in 2019, Contemporary Art Qatar in St. Petersburg and Berlin in 2018 and 2017, and Picasso-Giacometti in Qatar in 2017.

Prior to her current role, Sheikha Reem Al-Thani was Head of Exhibition Design, responsible for the design and production of all temporary exhibitions organized by the QM. Before joining the QM Exhibitions Department, she was an Exhibition Designer at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. During her time at Mathaf, she had the opportunity to work with notable professionals from around the world and develop her skills in international museum exhibition design.

Sheikha Reem Al-Thani is also a multidisciplinary designer who works on activation of space through a human approach to design. In 2015, she became the first Qatari to hold a Master's in Design in Adaptive Reuse Interior Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Prior to that, she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar in 2010 with a double major in Interior Design and Fashion Design.

Refik Anadol

Refik Anadol (b. 1985, Istanbul, Turkey) is an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. He is the Director of Refik Anadol Studio in Los Angeles and Lecturer in UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts.

Anadol’s work locates creativity at the intersection of humans and machines. Taking the data that surrounds us as primary material, and the neural network of a computerized mind as a collaborator, Anadol offers us radical visualizations of our digitized memories and expands the possibilities of interdisciplinary arts. Anadol’s site-specific data paintings and sculptures, live audio/visual performances, and immersive installations take many forms, while encouraging us to rethink our engagement with the physical world, collective experiences, public art, decentralized networks, and the creative potential of AI.

His work has been exhibited at venues including MoMA, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Art Basel, National Gallery of Victoria, Venice Architecture Biennale, Hammer Museum, Arken Museum, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Ars Electronica, Istanbul Modern, and ZKM |Center for Art and New Media.

Anadol has received a number of awards and prizes including the Lorenzo il Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award for New Media Art, Microsoft Research’s Best Vision Award, German Design Award, UCLA Art+Architecture Moss Award, Columbia University’s Breakthrough in Storytelling Award, and Google’s Artists and Machine Intelligence Artist Residency Award.

Frida Escobedo

Frida Escobedo established her eponymous studio in Mexico City in 2006. The studio’s reputation, initially built on the strength of a series of competition-winning projects in her native country, has achieved global scope since 2018, when she received the prestigious appointment to design the annual Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens, becoming the youngest architect to that date to undertake the project. Most recently, she was appointed as the architect to design the new Modern & Contemporary Wing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, becoming the youngest and first woman to design a building for the institution.

Escobedo is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Architectural League of New York’s Young Architects Forum Award (2009), the BIAU Prize (2014), the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award (2016), and the Architectural League Emerging Voices Award (2017). Most recently, the Créateurs Design Association & Awards has named Frida as the recipient of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand for 2024.

Tatiana Bilbao Spamer

Tatiana Bilbao, born in 1972, began her eponymous studio in 2004. Prior to founding her architecture studio, was an Advisor in the Ministry of Development and Housing of the Government of the Federal District of Mexico City. Bilbao holds a recurrent visiting teaching position at Yale University School of Architecture and has taught at Harvard University GSD, Columbia University GSAPP, Rice University, AA in London Summer School, and Peter Behrens School of Arts at Dusseldorf in Germany, among others.

Bilbao’s studio work intersects field research and well as a construction of an intellectual approach to focus on spaces that aim to become platforms for the possibility and enhancement of life across typologies and in different parts of the world. This work has garnered recognition through several distinctions, including the Kunstpreis Berlin in 2012, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture Prize by the LOCUS Foundation in 2014, the Marcus Prize Award 2019, Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal of the ACSA 2020, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) 2021, and the Richard Neutra Award in 2022.

Dorothy Di Stefano

Dorothy is a globally recognised Art Curator and visionary Creative Strategist. As the Founder and Director of Molten Immersive Art, she leads an exceptional collective of international experiential artists and researchers.

With an impressive track record spanning over seven years, she stands as a foremost thought leader and innovator in the captivating realm of narrative-based immersive and interactive art. Her work seamlessly blends cutting-edge technology, artistry, and interactivity to craft experiences that are truly transformative, captivating both audiences and artists alike.

Within Molten Immersive Art, Dorothy spearheads a team of creative strategists and digital immersive experience designers. Together, they embark on projects that span the globe, collaborating on a wide array of initiatives, including festivals, government, and brand activations.

Her impact has been widely recognised, earning her titles such as one of the 5 Most Influential Women to Watch in 2022, a place among the 10 Most Influential Women Leaders of 2021, named the #1 Female Art & Culture creator on LinkedIn in 2023 and the distinguished honor of being named Blooloop's 50 Immersive Influencers of 2023.

Eric Langham

Eric is internationally recognised as a planner of new museums and cultural projects. He oversees all of Barker Langham’s creative and visitor experience work, and his expertise encompasses the interpretive direction and curation of ground-breaking cultural projects across the globe.

Eric’s distinctive approach to interpretation explores the interfaces between narratives, space, scale, and time. Barker Langham is one of the world’s leading cultural consultancies, creating pioneering and sustainable projects across the globe.

Nawaf Alharbi

Nawaf AlHarbi is a cultural strategist and currently the Director of Strategy and Development at Misk Art Institute in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).

AlHarbi led the development of the institutional and collections strategies at Misk Foundation, as well as multiple national and regional community empowerment initiatives across the nonprofit, governmental, and private sectors.

With a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania specializing in the Arts and Culture Nonprofit sector, his aim is to build a strong foundation for the Saudi cultural sector, empowering artists and local creative talents.

Shirin Brückner

Shirin Brückner, born in Baghdad in 1967 and trained as an architect in Germany, is the managing director and founding partner of ATELIER BRÜCKNER. She studied architecture at the universities of Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart, and has worked as an architect since 1994.

Guided by the principle of "making the impossible possible", she systematically applies her skills in project acquisition, conception, controlling, and implementation. As managing director, she is responsible for positioning the studio, which has become one of the world's leading exhibition design studios.

ATELIER BRÜCKNER has been developing narrative design and exhibitions for museums, brand and visitor centers since 1997. With more than 130 employees, ATELIER BRÜCKNER has offices in Stuttgart and Seoul.

Recent projects include the Museum of the Future in Dubai, the Ephesus Experience Museum in Turkey, and the Wonders of Medicine exhibition at the Novartis Pavilion in Basel, Switzerland. One of the key projects is the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which presents the Tutankhamun Gallery, designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.

András Szántó

András Szántó advises museums, foundations, educational institutions, and corporations on cultural strategy and program development, worldwide. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University (New York).

A widely published author, his writings have appeared inThe New York Times, Artforum, Artnet News, and The Art Newspaper, among other publications. As a consultant, he advises some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and corporate art programs. He has lectured on art business at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art and has directed the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he helped launch and oversee the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium, a series of seminars for museum directors. He is a frequent moderator of the Art Basel Conversations series.

Born in Budapest, he has curated exhibitions on Hungarian art of the 1960s and 70s. His most recent books areThe Future of the Museum (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2020) andImagining the Future Museum (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2022). He lives in Brooklyn.

María de la Peña

María de la Peña is an art historian and journalist. She worked for twelve years at the Prado Museum as the Head of Media Relations and has since pursued a career as a journalist specializing in cultural stories and interviews with artists.

She is the author of the bookDiez artistas y el Museo del Prado (Editorial La Fábrica, 2022).

Agnès Abastado

Agnès Abastado has more than thirteen years of experience in the design and management of digital projects. At the beginning of 2022, she joined the EPMO-VGE - Établissement public des musées d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie, as Deputy Director of Digital and Head of the Digital Development Department. She contributes, alongside Hélène Charbonnier, the Digital Director, to the definition of the digital strategy of the Institution. In collaboration with her teams, she designs, develops and distributes the multimedia and innovative digital assets for the two museums, both in situ and on line, for the permanent collections, cultural events and exhibitions, and digital mediation for the public. Agnès Abastado is also the contact person for digital issues in the context of the institution's CSR policy.

Alkindi Al Jawabra

Alkindi Al Jawabra leads the development of the Qatar Auto Museum project. He is an experienced architect with seventeen years of experience in cultural projects development.

Al Jawabra holds PhD in Critical Heritage Studies and MA in Museum and Gallery Practice from University College London. In addition, he has MSc and BA qualifications in Architecture from Damascus University.

He has published articles with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). He has talked at international conferences in Paris, Kyoto, London, and Doha.

Rebekah Rhodes

Rebekah Rhodes is an arts writer, Chartered Linguist and Head of Research and Publications at Colección SOLO. She read History at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, before completing post-graduate studies in translation and has collaborated on publications for numerous arts institutions including the Picasso Foundation and Birthplace Museum, the Russian Museum Collection Malaga, and Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid.

Rebekah has worked with Colección SOLO since it was founded, across projects including the exhibitions Mu Pan and Other Beasts (2019), Still Human (2020), Protection No Longer Assured (2023) and The Garden of Earthly Delights through the artworks of Colección SOLO (Matadero Madrid, 2021; 92,000+ visitors), for which she also authored the exhibition catalog. Her research interests span media art history, collecting, and the interplay of digital creation with traditional artistic media.

She has delivered guest lectures at institutions including IE University, St. Louis University, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

Borina Andrieu

Borina Andrieu is Managing Director at Wilmotte & Associés Architectes (W&A) and Advisor to the National Committee of French Foreign Trade (CNCCEF). After studying Art History at the Ecole du Louvre, International Relations and Finance at Sciences Po, and Literature and Communications at the Sorbonne, Andrieu started in publishing and economic press. Over the past twenty years, she has played a pivotal role in expanding Wilmotte & Associés Architectes presence in France and key strategic locations globally, including Europe, Brazil, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia, thereby promoting Jean-Michel Wilmotte's architectural vision worldwide.

Her deep understanding of strategic, legal, and budgetary considerations in large-scale architectural projects has been essential in meeting the needs of prestigious clients, both private and public. Her approach focuses on enhancing client-architect relations and extending W&A’s influence in major economic regions.

Andrieu has been involved in various landmark projects like the Russian Orthodox Spiritual & Cultural Center in Paris, New Greater Moscow, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in China, Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and the Ferrari Sporting Management Center in Italy. Her involvement in these projects underscores her commitment to innovation and excellence in global architecture.

Ugo Bertoni

Ugo Bertoni is the Director for External Affairs, Outreach, and Cultural Engagement at Louvre Abu Dhabi since 2022. He oversees five departments: International and Institutional Affairs, Education, Interpretation and Creative content, Cultural Programs, and Publications. Involved in the Louvre Abu Dhabi project since 2008, he has played an integral role in the development and growth of the museum.

Bertoni started his career at the Ministry of Culture and Communication of France, where he worked as a research analyst. Soon after, he became a project officer at Agence France-Muséums, where led on key aspects of the prestigious Louvre Abu Dhabi project focusing on external affairs and moved to Abu Dhabi as part of the museum pre-opening team.

Ugo Bertoni's educational background includes studying at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Sorbonne University, and Science Po (Political Sciences Institute). He holds three master's degrees in political science, law and public administration, and philosophy. From 2009 to 2013, Bertoni also worked as a Lecturer at Sciences Po, conducting seminars in the field of international cultural policy.

Clotilde Entrecanales

Clotilde is an art historian and Head of Experiences at the culture-tech company ACCIONA Cultura. She leads a team of creative strategists, designers and museologists to explore the relationship between technology, space, storytelling and people. Some of the projects she has led within ACCIONA Cultura include the Real Madrid Experience, the ACCIONA Museum, Expo Live Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020 and Life and Work of Frida Kahlo Immersive Exhibition.

Carla Prat

Carla Prat combines her expertise as a museologist with her passion for creative direction to craft immersive experiences and exhibitions. With a background in art and museology, she has more than fifteen years of experience in the cultural sector.

As a Creative Strategist at ACCIONA Cultura, Carla has participated in some of the company’s most transformative projects, including the Sustainability Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, the design of the Real Madrid Museum within the new stadium, and the creation of the most awarded immersive exhibition worldwide, Life and Work of Frida Kahlo.

Before joining ACCIONA Cultura in 2019, Carla played key roles in the various museums across different regions. From her work as an academic advisor for the Memory and Tolerance Museum in Mexico City to her contribution as an independent consultant in Latin America, she has demonstrated a rich and diverse background. Additionally, she worked in the curatorial departments of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. Carla is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Committee of Memorial and Human Rights Museums.

Michael Kimmelman

Architecture critic of The New York Times and the founder and editor-at-large of Headway, a small team of journalists focused on large global challenges and paths to progress. He writes about buildings, housing and homelessness, neighborhoods, cities, environmental issues and civil society.

He started my journalistic career as an editor of a design magazine and as the architecture critic for New England Monthly. He became chief art critic of The Times and later moved to Berlin to create the Abroad column, covering cultural, political and social affairs across Europe and the Middle East. He returned to New York to become the paper’s architecture critic and in 2021 took on a second role at The Times, founding Headway. A native New Yorker, he is the author of several books, twice a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a graduate of Yale and Harvard, and teaches in the graduate school of architecture at Columbia University.

Dr. Christian Wacker

Dr. Christian Wacker is an archaeologist and sports historian. His main field of research is ancient sports history, as well as nineteenth-century and Olympic sports history. He has organized around thirty sports exhibitions internationally over the past seventeen years.

He worked as an archaeologist at the excavation of ancient Olympia, Greece, in the nineties and received his PhD for a thesis on the gymnasium at Olympia. After that, he joined a scientific publishing house and led the editorial office.

From 2005 to 2008, he directed the German Sport & Olympia Museum in Cologne and, from 2008 to 2014, he was the Director of the Qatar Olympic & Sports Museum in Doha. From 2014 to 2018, he took over the responsibility to build a Museum Academy at the University in Freiburg, Germany. He was the Director of the Karl May Museum in Dresden, Germany, between 2018 and 2020, and directed the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Center in Kuwait from 2020 to 2022. He rejoined the Qatar Museums in 2022.

Throughout his career, Dr. Wacker has taught at various universities, and published fifteen books and around eighty papers about sports history, archaeology, and museology. In 2022, he published two books, including Sports in Museums (Taylor Francis), about best museum practice in relation to sports.

Ana Belén García

Exhibition Manager at Arts and Creative Industries on the Royal Commission for AlUla since 2022. Responsible for the Visitor Experience in Desert X Alula 2024 and for the implementation of the design of the exhibitions in AlUla Art Festival. Specialized in leading, management and coordination exhibition's and cultural projects, before has been responsible for exhibitions in PHotoEspaña, Madrid Design Festival and has lead exhibition projects for the Ministry of Justice in Spain and Spanish Embassy in Sweden.  She started her career in Spanish State Museums developing of communication strategies for cultural activities.

Her educational background includes Journalism Degree, Photography studies and a Master in Cultural Heritage at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.  She also has curated exhibitions focused on photography and design and has being in charge of the touring of international exhibitions in collaboration and partnership with institutions around the world.

Yasmeen Sabri

Yasmeen Sabri is an exhibitions producer, visual artist, and curatorial advisor with eight years of experience. Specializing in creating large-scale festivals, public art, and supporting the cultural development of the Middle East region, she has worked on festivals and exhibitions such as Noor Riyadh Lights Festival, Amman Design Week, MiSK, Islamic Biennale, Tuwaiq Sculpture, and 21,39, managing the overall production and operation of the event, from inception to delivery. Passionate about cultural diplomacy, Sabri works on community building programs where she can support artists, designers, and curators to produce their creative ambitions.

Sabri is a painter and designer who creates installations, paintings, and experiences. Her artistic work explores the relationships between cultural anthropology and the self. Through the use of mud larking and everyday objects, she creates immersive sensory experiences and artworks in which she invites the audience to play and get lost. She studied in London, earning Fine Arts degree at Central Saint Martins and a master’s degree in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Arts.

Alex Manresa

Architect and museographer, Alex Manresa has developed over fifty museums and numerous exhibitions in Europe, Asia, and Africa during the last thirty years, collaborating with public institutions, specialized companies, and private clients. He has participated in five World Expos, carrying out various national and thematic pavilions.

Alex’s professional experience covers all the processes related to museography, from concept, design, content, and technical development to production or comprehensive project management.

Currently, he holds the positions of Director of Strategy and U.S. Director at ACCIONA Culture (the North America brand for ACCIONA Cultura), from which he supports the optimization of work processes in the company, collaborates in the development of international markets, and promotes the establishment of strategic relationships with clients, singular collaborators, and specialized companies.

Gary Walker-Kerr

Gary Walker-Kerr is a master at creating connections and fostering collaboration with diverse cultural institutions to produce the most innovative and dynamic interpretive experiences. With twenty-eight years of personal experience in creative industries around the globe, his insight, unique creativity, and hands-on approach is trusted and true. His excitement for every project fosters meaningful and fruitful designer-client relationships that produce aesthetically impressive and truly evocative visitor experiences.

His areas of specialization include cultural master planning, project visioning, communication strategies, branding, and placemaking strategies. His genuine exuberance for the power of design to bolster storytelling and bring visitor experience to the forefront is contagious to employees and clients alike.

Emilio Tuñón

Emilio Tuñón is Chair Professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, ETSAM). He has also taught in Hassel University, Princeton University, Harvard GSD, EPFL Lausanne, and the Frankfurt Städelschule.

In 1992, he founded MANSILLA + TUÑÓN with Luis Moreno Mansilla (1959-2012), and in 2012 he founded TUÑÓN + ALBORNOZ. Tuñón is committed to the confrontation of theoretical and academic practice with the activity of design and construction.

Among his works, we can highlight the Museum of the Royal Collections in Madrid, the Helga de Alvear Museum of Contemporary Art in Cáceres, the MUSAC in León, the Museum of Fine Arts in Castellón, and the Museum of Zamora.

His work has been recognized with the National Architecture Prize, Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, Mies van der Rohe Prize, European Union Architecture Prize, RIBA International Fellowship, Spanish Architecture Prize, International Spanish Architecture Prize, Eduardo Torroja Prize for Architecture and Engineering, Prize of the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, Prize of the Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, and Prize of Culture of the Community of Madrid.

Sarah Bradley

Sarah Bradley is a writer, artist, and Senior Creative Director and Story Editor at Meow Wolf. She received her BA in English from Boston University in 2004. After a summer long road trip during which she produced a podcast, Bradley moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. She worked as the editor for the online magazine of photo-eye, a photography bookstore and gallery. Her writing on art and photobooks has been published in photo-eye, The Magazine, Phroom, and IMA.

In 2010, she began working with a young DIY art collective called Meow Wolf, making sculptures and costumes for The Moon Is To Live On, Habitats, and The Due Return. When Meow Wolf incorporated in 2015, Bradley was asked to join the artist team building The House of Eternal Return. Since then, Bradley has worked for Meow Wolf in many capacities, including costumer, sculptor, audio producer, and podcast host. In her current role, she is focused on narrative development and how stories inhabit the worlds that Meow Wolf builds.

Miguel Blanco Carrasco

Miguel Blanco Carrasco is an Arts and Culture Director with twenty years of experience initiating and realizing large-scale cultural programs in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

As an Advisor at the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, he is involved in the Riyadh Life and Riyadh Art initiatives, with a focus on public art. Between 2019 and 2022, he was the founding Executive Director of the Noor Riyadh Festival, steering it from initial concept into the largest light art festival in the world, achieving over fifty international awards, including fourteen Guinness World Records. Prior to this, he served as Program Director at Jeddah Seasons Obhur and COO at the MiSK Art Institute, an artist-centered cultural organization founded in 2017.

Before his work in Saudi Arabia, Blanco Carrasco was the founding Director of Cultural Diplomacy Projects at Qatar Museums, spearheading the ‘Years of Culture’ program, which is ongoing.

He holds an MSc in International Relations from the University of London and an LLB from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and trained at the Centre for Creative Leadership in Colorado, US.

He is an angel investor and art collector.

Melisa Pezuk

Melisa Pezuk is a Development Executive with over twenty years of successful background in real estate development. She is recognized as a hands-on, pro-active team leader who can rapidly identify problems, think out of the box, initiate change, propose strategic solutions, and implement new ideas in challenging and diverse environments.

Pezuk has led prestigious multi-billion-dollar developments, including cultural projects, museums (including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum, DIFC Public Art Project, and AMAALA Cultural Projects), ultra-luxury hospitality destinations and leisure projects, financial centers, commercial, retail, and residential. She has core skills in the management and control of development feasibility, strategic vision, positioning, creation for destination development, strategic partner selections, design, construction, cost, and timelines of projects throughout the development process with the stakeholder’s management.

Justine Alexandria

Justine Alexandria joined the Yuz Museum as its Deputy Director in 2015 and Yuz Foundation as its Director in 2017. Since that time, she has worked closely with the team to achieve the vision and mission of the museum, which includes expanding and exploring the museum’s exhibition programs and collections, working with international and Chinese artists through its residency program, developing public educations and programs, as well as its outreach efforts to the community and government.

As she states, “We will further develop Budi Tek’s philosophy of ‘collecting to share’ and explore other possibilities for art museums’ here and now through a brand-new concept … The Yuz Museum will stay ‘human-centered’, but will adopt more flexible layouts and models and reach out to broader collaborations. We hope that through different variations and forms, we can enable our audience from different places to ‘trigger’ art in their daily life instead of being restricted to a fixed ‘white box’. By that, people will be able to form their own aesthetic understandings from multiple perspectives and on a more diversified platform, thus breaking free from the constraints of specific time and space, entering different story lines, and embarking on their own art journey at any time.”

Karen Exell

Dr Karen Exell is Executive Director of Cultural Strategy and Development at Diriyah Gate in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She is responsible for the delivery of the cultural vision and over forty cultural assets within the Diryah Gate project, including museums dedicated to Islamic calligraphy, modern and contemporary Arab and Islamic art, and Saudi history, academies of traditional arts, royal collection libraries, site visitor centers, and site-wide public art programs.

Previous roles include Director of Lusail Museum (2022-23); Senior Development Director for Cultural Assets at Diriyah Gate, Riyadh (2020-22); and the delivery of the National Museum of Qatar under the leadership of Sheikha Amna bint Abdul Aziz Al Thani, then NMoQ Director from 2015 to 2019. She also directed the MA in Museum and Gallery Practice at UCL Qatar from 2011 to 2015.

Past publications include the monographs, Modernity and the Museum in the Arabian Peninsula (Routledge, 2016), and The Global Spectacular: New Museum Architecture in China and the Arabian Peninsula (Lund Humphries, April 2018), as well as the co-edited volumes, Cultural Heritage in the Arabian Peninsula: Debates, Discourses and Practices (Ashgate, 2014) and Museums in Arabia: Transnational Practices and Regional Processes (Routledge, 2016).

Femke Bijlsma

Femke Bijlsma studied architecture in Delft and Tokyo and worked as an architect, journalist, teacher and artist before joining the exhibition design firm Kossmanndejong.

She is a dedicated ambassador for the physical, human experience and for making design work for urgent societal challenges.

Farah Abushullaih

Farah Abushullaih is the Head of Museum at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Ithra. She holds an MA in Museum Anthropology from Columbia University in New York, USA, and a BSc in International Business and Intercultural Communications from Aston University in Birmingham, UK. Abushullaih joined the Ithra team in 2012 and worked as Lead Curator of the Great Hall exhibition space. During her time at Ithra, Abushullaih led the launching of a number of programs and initiatives that support the development of the Kingdom’s creative sector and provide a platform for cross-cultural engagement. She has led bringing global art to the Kingdom. With her team, she has curated and developed several local and international exhibitions in collaboration and partnership with distinguished institutions.

Aziz Isham

Aziz Isham is the Executive Director of the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), a position he has held since October 2023. He is an award-winning filmmaker and producer with over twenty years of experience leading organizations and working alongside communities to tell their own stories. MoMI is one of the world’s leading institutions dedicated to storytelling technology—from film and cinema, to games, digital art, and more. It is a hands-on institution where, every year, hundreds of thousands of people have their first encounter with new forms of media and where the art and history of the moving image are celebrated every day.

Isham lives in Brooklyn, NY, and teaches at the City University of New York (CUNY) Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

Nick Appelbaum

Nick Appelbaum is the President and CEO of Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), the world’s largest practice dedicated to the planning and design of museums and narrative environments. Since joining the practice in 2008, he has worked in every facet of planning, designing, and delivering cultural projects. Nick is responsible for managing RAA’s output, overseeing an active roster of sixty active commissions in over twenty countries. Current work includes the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration, the White House Experience, UK Holocaust Memorial in London, and the Natural History Museum in Abu Dhabi.

Nick was educated at Oxford and Harvard and lives in New York.

Nicolas Helly

Nicolas Helly began his professional career in Cartier in 1998 in Tokyo, as part of the marketing team of the Japanese subsidiary and subsequently moved to Paris to work in the marketing department in France. Since 2003, he has worked in sales in various boutiques in Paris, such as the legendary 13, rue de la Paix or the Champs-Elysées and in the boutique Cartier in Brussels.

In 2011, he was appointed Retail Director for Cartier Iberia to lead the development and transformation of Cartier stores in the Iberian Peninsula. He remained in this position until 2014, when he moved to Miami as Retail Director for the Latin America and Caribbean subsidiary. In 2017, he returned to Tokyo as head of the broad network of Cartier stores in Japan.

From 2021, he has been holding his current position as Managing Director of Cartier Iberia, driving the development of the Maison in Spain and Portugal, with a unique value proposition for local clients and audiences.

Prof. Carlo Ratti

An architect and engineer by training, Professor Carlo Ratti teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he directs the Senseable City Lab, and is a founding partner of the international design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati. He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, and later earned his MPhil and PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK.

A leading voice in the debate on new technologies’ impact on urban life and design, Carlo has co-authored over 500 publications, including The City of Tomorrow (Yale University Press, with Matthew Claudel), and holds several technical patents. His articles and interviews have appeared on international media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Scientific American, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore, Domus, the BBC, and Project Syndicate. His work has been exhibited worldwide at venues such as the Venice Biennale, the Design Museum Barcelona, the Science Museum in London, MAXXI in Rome, and MoMA in New York City.

David Goodman

David Goodman is Dean of IE School of Architecture and Design, Director of the Bachelor in Architectural Studies and the Master in Architecture, and Professor of Architecture at IE University. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and of Cornell University, he also holds a PhD in Business Studies from the IE University, specializing in Strategy and Organization Theory.

His current research deals with innovations in architecture practice and production during times of socioeconomic turbulence. Goodman is co-author of the book An Introduction to Architecture Theory: 1968 to the Present (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), and his work has also appeared in the Journal of Architectural Education, Technology|Architecture + Design (TAD), a+t, Log, in the anthology Chicago Architecture: Histories, Revisions, Alternatives (University of Chicago Press, 2005), and in the book Walter Netsch: A Critical Appreciation and Sourcebook (Northwestern University Press, 2008).

Manuel Román

Manuel Román joined Netflix in May 2022 as Senior Marketing Director for Spain and Portugal. Recently, his team has been recognized as “Advertiser of the Year” by El Sol Festival, one of the most prestigious international creative events in the world. This award has been given to Netflix after receiving more than a dozen awards in recent editions of the festival, for campaigns such as “Georgina’s Bag.”

His professional career, with more than twenty years of experience, is closely linked to the entertainment and technology industries (National Geographic Channel, Fox International Channels, YouTube, and Google). At Google, he led the development of the B2B and brand areas until directing the consumer marketing area. Manuel has a degree in Business Administration with a specialty in Marketing from Complutense University of Madrid