Our Board of Trustees

Steve is an experienced international CEO, Chair and Non-Exec Director, having held senior roles in some of the world’s best-known companies including Diageo and Coca Cola, before spending the last 16 years of his executive career as a CEO and Executive Committee member at Hiscox, one of the world’s leading specialist insurers. During this time, he lived and worked in Brazil, Ireland, Italy and the USA, and ran businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.

Steve’s association with contemporary art and architecture stretches back decades. He ran the original award-winning Becks Bier contemporary arts sponsorship programme in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was the design lead on the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, led the design and build of the striking Hiscox office in York, and between 2017 and 2021 was the Head of the Hiscox Art collection. Steve also developed contemporary art sponsorship programmes with – amongst others – the National Art Gallery, the Serpentine, the Whitechapel as well as The Hepworth Wakefield.

Steve is currently a Non-Exec Director of Helsinki based insurance company Sampo plc, and Chair of the Kenneth Armitage Foundation, which supports sculptural tradition by awarding financial assistance to artists of all ages.

Jon Horrocks is Director at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and New York. Working between sales, artist management and publications, Jon has facilitated institutional sales to museums including Tate; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; MFA Houston; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.

Priya Khanchandani is a curator, writer and commentator. Until recently, she was the Head of Curatorial at the Design Museum where she curated numerous  exhibitions including The Offbeat Sari, with an associated book. Previously she was the Editor in Chief of design and architecture magazine Icon, for which she was shortlisted for the 2020 Fiona Macpherson New Editor of the Year award. She has contributed to publications such as the FT, The Guardian, Vogue and the Observer and appears regularly in the broadcast media.

Priya grew up in Luton and studied Modern Languages at Cambridge University before embarking on a postgraduate law degree and beginning her career as a lawyer at magic circle firm Clifford Chance. Her interests then led her to undertake an MA in the History of Design at the Royal College of Art, in which she gained a Distinction and the annual Dissertation Prize. She started her arts career working at the Victoria and Albert Museum and then at the British Council, as Head of Arts Programmes for India. Her numerous biennale projects interrogate narratives of identity and the politics of representation.

Priya was a Trustee of Chisenhale Gallery for five years and subsequently a Trustee of the national board for gallery education Engage. She is a Founding Member of the pro-diversity collective Museum Detox.

Susan May is Global Artistic Director of White Cube, one of the world’s leading contemporary commercial art galleries, where she oversees an international programme across sites in London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Seoul.

Prior to this, she was Head of the Arts Council Collection, the largest national loan collection of modern and contemporary British art. From 1999-2004, she was a Curator at Tate Modern, where she curated Turbine Hall commissions, exhibitions and projects.

Susan began her career at the Hayward Gallery in the early 1990s, where she worked as Exhibitions Curator after graduating with a degree in Fine Art from Liverpool John Moores University. She was previously a Board member of Matt’s Gallery in London.

Elliot McDonald is Senior Vice President at Pace Gallery in London. Elliot also manages the careers of artists Nigel Cooke, Keith Coventry and many more. Before joining Pace, Elliot was curator for the Hiscox Collection from 2002-2010. He also guided Hiscox’s sponsorship of the arts. Previous to that, Elliot was a curator at the ICA in London.

Henry Meyric Hughes is a freelance curator, editor and writer on art. He is Honorary President of AICA, in Paris, Chair of the International Awards for Art Criticism in London and Shanghai, a member of the Scientific and Cultural Advisory Council of the Archives de la critique d’art and member of the editorial board of the journal, Critique d’art, in Rennes. He is also a board member of Matt’s Gallery, London. His main subject areas are British art in the twentieth century and modern and contemporary art since 1945.

From 1968 to 1992 Henry worked on cultural exchanges for the British Council in Germany, Peru, France and Italy, and as Director, in turn, of Visiting Arts and the Visual Arts Department, in London. From 1992 to 1996 he was Director of the Hayward Gallery, London, before embarking on an independent career. He has been a frequent curator and commissioner at the Venice Biennale and São Paulo Bienal and (co-)curated numerous national and international exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. He was co-founder, then founding President of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Manifesta (1993-2008). He has been Special Adviser for Council of Europe Exhibitions (2007-14) and an adviser to UNESCO.

He has been decorated by the French and German governments.

Katie is a part of the Global Retail Leadership team at Lush Cosmetics where she supports colleagues in over 650 shops across 26 markets around the world. Katie’s experience spans new market entry and expansion, change management, senior team development and leading training initiatives which have been scaled globally.

Shaun is an experienced CFO and Non-Executive Director having worked in a wide range of companies in different sectors including Mars, Guinness, Diageo, CPP Group and Voyage Care. Shaun’s executive career included time spent living and working in the USA and Germany as well as across the UK. Shaun is currently Non-Executive Director of Spaghetti Bridge, a group of schools for children with special educational needs and a trustee of St Leonard’s Hospice in York.

Anna Valle is Founder and CEO of Seeds of Colour, a cruelty-free, organic and vegan makeup brand. During her career, Anna has driven high-growth brand strategies, comms, and digital marketing for a broad spectrum of lifestyle brands across wellness, health and beauty including ghd, Veet and Liz Earle. Anna is passionate about sustainability and brands with purpose. Anna is a trustee at Liverpool Biennial Board where she leads the diversity and inclusion working group. Channelling her passion for nature, health and beauty Anna has recently been appointed to the Board of the Chelsea Physic Garden. She is also President of the UK alumni Club of the IMD.