The Board
PETER JOPLING AM, KC, CHAIRMAN
COMPANY DIRECTOR AND PHILANTHROPIST
Peter Jopling is a Melbourne-based King’s Counsel. Peter is the Chairman of the Ian Potter Museum of Art and Chair of the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation Ltd. Peter has been Deputy Chair of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, a Director of the McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, and Director of the National Gallery of Australia Foundation. Peter is a Patron of the Australian World Orchestra as well as a member of the Victorian College of the Arts Foundation and the Melbourne University Humanities Foundation. Peter has also held directorships of science and business school boards as well as various legal governing boards. In 2014 Peter was made a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia for significant service to the law in Victoria and to the community.
MICHAELA WEBB
FOUNDER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR, STUDIO ROUND
With over 20 years’ experience, Michaela has worked for some of the world’s leading brand and design companies, including Wolff Olins and Spin in London, and in 2016 was elected as a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). In 2002, Michaela founded Round with Robert Nudds, a design practice that connects culture, commerce and creativity to deliver transformative brands across arts & culture, food & drink, hospitality, publishing, property, retail and architecture & design. Michaela currently sits as an advisor on boards for RMIT Design Hub and Ian Potter Museum of Art.
ROSE HISCOCK
DIRECTOR OF MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS,
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Prior to the University of Melbourne, Rose was Director of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (Powerhouse Museum), Australia’s contemporary museum for excellence and innovation in applied arts and sciences. Rose’s career includes a period at the Australia Council, where she held the position of Executive Director, Arts Development and Museum Victoria where she was responsible for commercial and audience growth across Museum Victoria’s highly successful venues. She is committed to building a thriving and dynamic arts sector and is Board member of Back to Back Theatre and Chunky Move.
ADRIAN FINI OAM
FOUNDER/DIRECTOR, FJM PROPERTY AND FINI GROUP
Adrian Fini OAM is a prominent Perth business executive involved in property development and the arts. He was managing director of family company Fini Group. Following its merger with ASX-listed Mirvac in 2001, he became chief executive of the expanded Mirvac Fini Business. He was subsequently appointed an executive director of Mirvac Group, responsible for its development division before resigning in 2010 to concentrate on private business ventures through FJM property and the ‘reborn’ Fini Group. In July 2020, Fini Group and Linc Property merged their operations under the name Hesperia. Mr. Fini is a director of Perth Festival and the University of Western Australia Foundation. In 2016, Mr. Fini was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the arts in Western Australia, and named the Western Australian of the Year.
NICHOLAS THOMPSON
OWNER/DIRECTOR, NICHOLAS THOMPSON GALLERY
Nicholas Thompson is the owner and director of Nicholas Thompson Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Naarm/Melbourne, founded in 2015. Prior to opening the gallery, he was employed for a decade by several of Australia’s most esteemed art galleries, including Philip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane and Australian Galleries in Melbourne. Thompson is a graduate of the University of Queensland (BA Hons Art History) and the University of Melbourne (MA Curatorship). He is an approved valuer for the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program and a member of the Art Galleries Association of Australia. Since its opening, Nicholas Thompson Gallery has exhibited at every iteration of the Melbourne Art Fair.
VIVIEN ANDERSON
OWNER/DIRECTOR, VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY
Vivien Anderson has over 30 years’ experience in Australian Indigenous art. After returning from a career in London in documentary film, she became Manager of the Aboriginal Artists Gallery in Melbourne and later managed and directed several acclaimed contemporary galleries in Melbourne and Sydney, all with a focus on the representation and exhibition of Australian indigenous visual artists. Vivien has directed her own specialist gallery in Melbourne since 2006. The current gallery is in St Kilda. Vivien Anderson is a former board member of the Art Galleries Australia Association and is a current board member of the Indigenous Code of Conduct.
ANDREW JENSEN
OWNER/DIRECTOR, FOX JENSEN GALLERY AND FOX JENSEN MCCRORY
ALICE WELLS
DIRECTOR, LEMPRIERE WELLS
Alice owns and operates leading global investment bank Lempriere Wells. Renowned for dynamic and vibrant strategic advice, and an unwavering commitment to clients in the pursuit of best-fit, value-add partners and capital.
Alice has a strong track record in identifying, assessing, and executing a range of transactions across fashion, healthcare, FMCG, and technology / software sectors. Alice has extensive experience in private equity and corporate advisory services including business sales, acquisitions, capital raising, and recapitalisations with exposure to Asia, North American, and European corporate finance markets.
Alice’s vision for Lempriere Wells is to make a genuine, positive impact on the lives of the founders she works with.
JOANNA STRUMPF
CO-OWNER/CO-DIRECTOR, SULLIVAN+STRUMPF
Joanna Strumpf is the Co-Director of Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney. Established in 2005 with Ursula Sullivan, the gallery is now one of the leading spaces for contemporary art in Australia working with over 40 contemporary emerging and established artists, and regularly participating in key national and international art fairs. Strumpf holds a Bachelor of Arts with Double Major in Art History from the University of Queensland and has held positions at Eva Breuer Art Dealer, Savill Galleries, Lawson-Menzies (Head of Paintings), and Deutscher Menzies (Art Specialist) before founding Sullivan+Strumpf. In 2021, Strumpf and Sullivan created The First Nation’s Fellowship Gift Fund in partnership with The Institute of Modern Art (IMA, Brisbane), that looks to give opportunities to emerging First Nations curators through projects with the IMA. In 2022, Sullivan+Strumpf expanded by opening a second Australian space in Melbourne.
PROF. BRIAN MARTIN
ASSOCIATE DEAN, INDIGENOUS
MONASH UNIVERSITY ART, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
Professor Brian Martin is the faculty’s inaugural Associate Dean, Indigenous. Brian is a descendant of Muruwari, Bundjalung and Kamilaroi peoples. Brian is represented by William Mora Galleries. He has been a practicing artist for twenty-seven years and has exhibited both nationally and internationally specifically in the media of painting and drawing. His research and practice focuses on refiguring Australian art and culture from an Indigenous ideological perspective based on a reciprocal relationship to “Country”. Brian was previously Professor and Head of Research at the Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University. He is also Honorary Professor of Eminence at Centurion University of Technology and Management in Odisha, India.
ALAN PIGOTT
COMPANY DIRECTOR AND PHILANTHROPIST
Alan Pigott is a non-executive director and advisor who brings experience in strategy, business planning, governance, people and culture to the Board. He has a deep working knowledge of the for-profit, not for profit sectors and public sectors. He is passionate about the visual arts sector in Australia.
Alan has held senior positions across all levels of government including the Premier’s Department of NSW and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Before joining the private sector, Alan was the Deputy Chief Executive of Job Futures, a significant provider of employment services managing Federal and State Government contracts across 166, often remote locations. He was previously Director Arts Development with the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the General Manager of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Most recently he was based in Hong Kong for 12 years working in the payments and eCommerce industry.
Alan is also a non-executive director of the Tweed Regional Art Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Foundation Ltd., as well as other assorted for-profit Boards.
@melbourneartfair
