GFAA Advisory Board – Executive Committee & Key Members at Large
The GFAA Advisory Board and Team is comprised of over 40 people from around the globe.
The most dedicated of these individuals serve on the Executive Committee. Their contributions to the future of our program are the most valuable and honored assets of the organization.
Leadership
- Judy Holm, GFAA Founder and President, Founder of Aspirations PR and Art Concierge
- Bill Peters, GFAA Special Advisor; Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle
Advisory Board – Executive Committee
- Suzanne Deal Booth, Art historian, philanthropist and collector
- Alfredo Gonzalez Canovas, Marketing executive, GFAA Partnerships Chair
- Kimberly Lin, Art Historian and collector, GFAA Art Research Committee Chair, GFAA Digital Marketing Committee
- Ekaterina Luki, Art advisor, curator, GFAA Museum and Gallery Relations Committee
- Salwa Mikdadi, Associate Professor of Art History, NYU Abu Dhabi, Nominating Committee
- Ty Murphy, Family Office advisor and consultant; former management committee BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), GFAA UK Chair
- Deborah Najar, Founder of the JPNF (Jean-Paul Najar Foundation), a museum for Contemporary Art; and Director of the Global Private Museum Network; GFAA Museum and Gallery Relations Committee
- Dean Phelus, Senior Director AAM, GFAA Judge
- Betsie Piussan– MBA from NYU; BA Stanford University, studied at l’Université de Paris and l’Ecole du Louvre, Design Certificate NY School of Interior Design, GFAA Nominating Committee Chair
- Hedva Ser, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Special Envoy for Cultural Diplomacy; UNESCO Artist for Peace, GFAA Advisory Board, Honorary Member
- Maarten Statius Muller, Public Relations in Art and Design, GFAA International PR and Social Media
- Peter Trippi, Editor-in-Chief, Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, GFAA Judge Emeritus
Advisory Board – Directors and Key Members-at-Large
- Eleanor Goldhar, Partner Vollmer Cultural Consultants Inc., GFAA Communications Committee Chair
- Andrew Nicolls, Strategic Advisor to Finanical Firms, GFAA Strategic Advisor
- Juan Carlos Zaldivar, Emmy Award nominated film maker; Sundance Institute Juror, Sundance Film Institute alumnus, Co-founder of the Miami Filmmakers Collective
- Renee Farina, Biennale di Firenze (Florence) International Selection Committee, formerly of Christie’s Masters, Modern and Contemporary Departments, NYC, GFAA Research Committee and Museum and Gallery Relations Latin America
- Carolyn Cruz– International marketing professional and former VP of Global brands including Apple and The Gap, GFAA Public Relations and Museum and Gallery Relations, Europe
- Hogan Fritz, Assistant at William Morris Endeavor (WME | IMG), GFAA Video Producer
- Patricia Lannes, Founder of Cultures and Literacies through Art for the 21st Century, Chair of Global Latino Network of the AAM, GFAA Nominating Committee and Museum and Gallery Relations Latin America
- Edie Meyer, Head of business development for Vastari in the US, GFAA Marketing Committee
- Viktoria (Viki) Szanto, Master’s Degree candidate, King’s College London, GFAA Young Visionaries member and member of the Marketing Committee
- Marta Nowakowski, Intellectual Property Corporate Counsel, BMW, GFAA Advisory Board, Art Liaison Europe and European Chair of GFAA Young Visionaries
- Stefano Rabolli Pansera – Senior Director Hauser & Wirth London, Architect and Curator; curated the first Angolan Pavilion at the 55th Biennale di Venezia, a project that won the Golden Lion (Best National Participation), GFAA Advisory Board and Art Liaison Committee
- Terence Riley, Architect, former Executive Director at Miami Art Museum and MoMA New York (Design)
- Tiffany Chestler, Director of Cultural Programming at DACRA and Craig Robins art collection
- Corinne Arazi, GFAA Advisory Board Emeritus
BIOs
Judy Holm, GFAA President and CEO
As part of a lifelong passion for art and education, Judy Holm has been immersed in the world of art fairs, biennials, galleries and museums for several decades.
Ms. Holm’s background includes twenty-five years of experience in arts and culture, direction of more than 60 art installations and 600 cultural events throughout the United States and Europe. Her career and education span fine art, opera, symphony, ballet, literature and film.
Founder of the Global Fine Art Awards, and director of the program for the past five years, she presides over the Advisory Board members and the Judges. GFAA has grown more than 100% each year since its inception, reviews over 2,000 exhibitions and installations every year, and has a team of forty researchers, judges and advisory board members from twenty countries on four continents. Recent highlights include developing cultural collaborations with Frieze, The Armory, and Masterpiece Fair.
Additionally, she developed an Art Concierge business in Venice, Italy for the Biennale 2011, and continues to consult with private art clients internationally. She served as Vice-Chair for the Miami Beach Chamber’s Arts and Culture Council from 2011 to 2014, and was the founding editor of the bi-weekly column Arts and Culture (PRE)View – (RE)View for the Miami Beach newspaper.
Previously, for fifteen years she worked with major financial institutions creating marketing programs and events integrating art, culture and education for Wells Fargo, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab and Citibank.
A native of San Francisco, currently residing in New York, she also worked in Paris, Venice and Miami. Ms. Holm received bachelor’s degrees with honors in Economics and French Literature from U.C. Berkeley, and an MBA from l’Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP).
Suzanne Deal Booth, GFAA Executive Committee
Suzanne Deal Booth is a philanthropist, arts advisor and collector, and has long been committed to the recognition, preservation and conservation of visual arts and cultural heritage.
Ms. Deal Booth has worked at several notable institutions including les Monuments Historiques, France, The Kimbell Art Museum, The Menil Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museums of New Mexico. Her post-graduate fellowship, funded by the Kress Foundation, took place at Centre Pompidou, Paris, where she restored important 20th century paintings for the museum’s permanent collection. She worked with the artist James Turrell on his Skyspace at MoMA’s PS1, and later assisted on his installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Ms. Deal Booth is the Founder of The Friends of Heritage Preservation (FOHP) and has served as Director since 1998. The charitable organization has successfully participated and contributed to 60 preservation and conservation projects around the world. She also serves on a number of boards including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Menil Collection, Centre Pompidou Foundation, Ballroom Marfa and The Contemporary in Austin, TX. In 2001, she and her family established the Booth Family Rome Prize Fellowship for Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome.
A native of Texas, Ms. Deal Booth graduated cum laude with a degree in art history from Rice University followed by a Master of Arts in art history and conservation from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and Conservation Center.
Eleanor Goldhar, GFAA Communications Committee Chair
Ms. Goldhar is a management executive in strategic planning, development, sponsorship, and communications marketing focused on cultural institutions including performing and visual arts, cultural urban development projects and encyclopedic and fine art museums and educational institutions.
She works with both non- and for-profit companies, and individual clients, in the U.S., Canada and Europe. She led the public re-launch of the Onassis Cultural Center New York featuring music, philosophy, and exhibitions of contemporary art and archaeological antiquities, including programs in other major New York City cultural venues.
Formerly, as the Deputy Director and Chief of Global Communications for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museums, Ms. Goldhar led all of the Guggenheim’s global initiatives. She directed Global Special Projects, Media and Public Relations, Marketing and Interactive departments including web redesign, digital and social media. She also led the Guggenheim New York’s 50th Anniversary year celebrations and the Google/YouTube Play global initiative.
As a member of the Guggenheim Executive Cabinet, Eleanor counseled the Director’s Office, the Board of Trustees, Curatorial, Development, Education, Legal and Visitor Services. High priority external clients included Google, BMW, UBS, The R.H.N. Ho Family Foundation, and both the Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA) and the Tourism Development Investment Corporation (TDIC) in Abu Dhabi.
Educated at York University and the University of Toronto, Goldhar is an accredited member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), from which she received the Gold Quill Award For Excellence.
Alfredo González Cánovas, GFAA Executive Committee, Partnerships and Sponsorships Committee Chair, Art Liaison Europe
Alfredo González Cánovas has a luxury and finance background with a deeply rooted passion of the art design world. Mr. González Cánovas has obtained pre-eminent experience collaborating with world renowned innovators of the luxury industry including Francesco Morawetz, the former General Manager of Milano Collezioni, the entity in charge of organising Milanese Fashion Weeks, who secured its place as the most prestigious fashion venue worldwide. Prior to this he served as a design manager for La Rinascente, Winner of the world’s Best Department Store award.
He is currently developing strategic and vetted partnerships with top art design galleries and luxury brands as the representative in Italy of 1stdibs, the world’s leading curated marketplace for collectible pieces in furniture, fine art, jewellery and fashion.
He has collaborated with institutions and enterprises creating new models of co-operation based on mutual support while collaborating with the Rudolf family, a platform for art and new ideas, including the founder of Art Basel Miami Beach and former Art Basel Director.
Mr. González Cánovas holds a bachelor’s degree with honours in Business Management from Lord Ashcroft International Business School, Cambridge; as well as a Master in Luxury Goods Management at the University of Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, where is currently based. He studied French at the Sorbonne University, Paris, and currently studies Art History.
Originally from Spain, Mr. González Cánovas has a creative outlook, passionately driven to seek innovative solutions and partnerships with his depth market knowledge of the luxury goods industry and using social and cultural integration through his love of art design and craftsmanship to widen perspectives facilitated by his multilingualism and cross-cultural mindset.
Kimberly Lin, GFAA Art Research Committee Chair
Kimberly Lin received a BA in Art History with an emphasis on modern and contemporary art from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, she has a degree in fashion design from the Los Angeles campus at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and completed the program in Post War Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s in London.
She worked at Art Network Services in Tokyo for Japanese corporate and private clients and helped to bring live art auctions to Tokyo via satellite. Currently, she is Board member of the Magical Bridge foundation in Palo Alto which has built one of the first innovative inclusive playgrounds for children in the Bay Area and helps to support and design similar projects.
A collector of art and photography, Kimberly is an active museum attendee and an avid golfer. A native and current resident of Palo Alto, California, Kimberly previously lived with her family in New York, London and also resided in Tokyo for nine years.
Ekaterina Luki, GFAA Museum and Gallery Relations Committee
Originally from Odessa in the Ukraine, Ekaterina Luki currently resides in London, after living for many years in New York.
Ms. Luki studied Modern and Contemporary Art with Christies in London. She also studied Interior Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Mechnikov in Odessa.
She has a deep arts background with over fifteen years of experience of the global art market, as both program producer and curator.
Edie Meyer, GFAA Marketing Committee
Edie Meyer, a native New Yorker hailing from Long Island, currently heads the US Business Development for Vastari. Vastari is a London-based technology company that connects private art collections with museum curators in order to facilitate art loans.
She began her career in marketing at The New Yorker magazine and subsequently worked for a number of technology start-ups. Ms. Meyer previously lived in London for nine years, specializing in Business Development for several art media companies including Art Asia Pacific Magazine, Louise Blouin Media and Art World magazine.
Ms. Meyer has a BA from Lehigh University and an MBA from Fordham University. She is on the boards of the Queens Botanical Gardens and The Waterfront Center, and an active member of ArtTable and POWarts.
Salwa Mikdadi, GFAA Nominating Committee and Museum and Gallery Relations, Middle East
Salwa Mikdadi, Associate Professor, Practice of Art History, NYU Abu Dhabi, specializes in the history of modern and contemporary art of the Arab world. Prior to joining the NYUAD, Mikdadi worked at Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority where she established the professional development program for museum professionals including a customized executive program (2012 – 2014) and was a lecturer at the Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi in the postgraduate program – History of Art and Museum Studies (2010-May 2014).
Mikdadi was the Executive Director of the Arts and Culture Program at the Emirates Foundation in Abu Dhabi (2009-2012). She wrote the reference guide on the history of the twentieth-century art of West Asia, North Africa and Egypt for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline web pages and is the editor and co-editors of several publications on the subject. She conducted research in Jordan, the West Bank, UAE, Syria and Lebanon on the governance and management of museums and art institutions. Mikdadi was the founding director of the Cultural & Visual Arts Resource/ICWA (1988-2006). She curated several exhibitions in the US and in Arab countries, including the ground-breaking Forces of Change (1994) and the first Palestinian Exhibition at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) and recently co-curated Permanent Temporariness at NYUAD Gallery (2018). She is the author and co-editor of several publications, among them Cities and Legends: Elias Zayat (Skira 2017), New Visions: Arab Contemporary Art of the 21st Century(co-editor with Nada Shabout, Thames & Hudson 2009), Palestine c/o Venice (2009), In/Visible: Arab American Artists (2005), Rhythm and Form: Visual Reflections on Arabic Poetry (1998) and Forces of Change (1994).
She was the co-founder and director of the Cultural & Visual Arts Resource/ICWA, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to the study and exhibit of art of the Arab world in the United States (1988-2006). Mikdadi is a founding board member of the Association of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab world, Iran and Turkey.
She received her B.A. from the American University of Beirut; and M.A. from J. F. Kennedy University
Ty Murphy, GFAA Advisory Board, UK Chair
Ty is a Family Office advisor and consultant. His non-profit work includes work with BAFTA where he sat on the management committee for two years. He also founded UFFO the Universal Film & Festival Organization which promotes best business practices to the industry, UFFO has 240 Film Festival members.
Deborah Najar, GFAA Museum and Gallery Relations Committee
Deborah is the Founder of the JPNF (Jean-Paul Najar Foundation), a museum for Contemporary Art located in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. Among the first non-profits in the UAE, the JPNF came about as a partnership with Alserkal Avenue, from a desire to offer a diverse artistic experience, with strong emphasis on patronage, archives and western abstraction. Two years and eight exhibitions later, Deborah and her team pride themselves in curating a mixture of solo and group shows, publishing catalogues and hosting rich public programs for all audiences. Prior to this, she was the Middle East Representative for Bonhams, and the General Manager of De Beers Middle East. Deborah sits on the board of the Gstaad New Year’s Music Festival and heads up the Global Private Museum Network. She arrived in Dubai in 2004, is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and speaks four languages.
Andrew Nicolls, GFAA Executive Committee
Andrew Nicolls has served as a strategic communications advisor to several financial services organizations working out of London, New York, Hong Kong, Paris, and Limassol. His clients have included, KKR, State Street, JP Morgan, Accor, Thomson Reuters and Sir Robert McAlpine.
Prior, Nicolls was Vice Chairman of Hudson Sandler, one of the UK’s most established PR agencies, where he led the new business function and directed the firm’s work on behalf of financial services clients. Andrew also oversaw all international activity the firm conducted with clients and agencies and established the Hong Kong office, serving as its Chairman.
In 1998, Nicolls co-founded what became the UK’s leading specialist PR agency, Penrose, focused on advising financial services companies. Penrose was sold to the Engine Group in 2010 and merged with two other agencies to become MHP, one of the UK’s largest independent PR companies.
Before going into communications, he worked in The City of London, initially as a Jobber for Wedd Durlacher Mordaunt, which subsequently became BZW, and ultimately as an analyst at James Capel, the leading broking house of the time. His experience as a derivatives and equities trader and as an equities analyst gives him a unique insight into the working of the capital markets when advising clients in the trading and broking/banking space.
Nicolls was listed in the Financial Times 2014 Top 100 list of LGBT Executives for his work in diversity in the workplace and considerable charity work in HIV support and awareness. He co-authored Tartanware, the definitive work on Scottish antiquities of the 19th Century.
Born in the UK and residing in New York, Nicolls holds a BSc Econ from University College Cardiff in Law and Accountancy.
Bill Peters, GFAA Special Advisor
Bill Peters is Managing Director with Jones Lang LaSalle’s New York Corporate Services group, previously Managing Director at the Staubach Company. He is a thirty year veteran of the financial and commercial real estate industries, with areas of expertise that include providing office tenant representation with a focus on technology firms (e-commerce, advertising, media and information services), and the financial services industry (asset managers, hedge funds, banks, investment banks, insurance).
Throughout his career, he has represented a wide variety of clients with requirements ranging from office relocations to multi-site portfolio strategy.
Prior, Mr. Peters worked in the investment management sector, with positions as Financial Consultant at Merrill Lynch, Lebenthal & Co., and Drexel Burnham Lambert.
He is a New York native, and holds a BA in Business and Economics from Gettysburg College.
Dean Phelus, GFAA Judge and Executive Committee
Dean Phelus is the Senior Director of Leadership Programs at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
In this capacity he oversees the editorial content for Museum magazine and a portfolio of programs and activities globally that foster a deeper understanding on best practices in museum programs and operations and the invaluable contribution museums make to society.
Prior to this position, he served for over a decade as director of the AAM annual meeting and professional development where he provided direction and oversight of the AAM annual meeting–the largest museum convening in the world, attracting 5,000-6,000 museum professionals from over 50 countries, and offering multilingual educational content in Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish—and other face-to-face and virtual professional development programs to strengthen core competencies in museum practice.
In his tenure he has had extensive exposure to numerous exhibitions in the US and around the world which have informed his thinking on exhibitions and the visitor experience.
He received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from the American University in Washington, DC.
Betsie Piussan, GFAA Nominating Committee Chair
A native of New York, Betsie Piussan received a B.S. Degree from Stanford University in social sciences and second concentration in French. She also studied at l’Université de Paris and l’Ecole du Louvre.
She completed her MBA at NYU Graduate School of Business. After graduating, she worked for nine years at Republic National Bank of New York, specializing in international lending.
Mrs. Piussan subsequently founded her interior design firm, Bremer Designs, after earning a Design Certificate from New York School of Interior Design. She specializes in renovations in NYC, Westchester, Connecticut and The Hamptons.
Stefano Rabolli Pansera, GFAA Museum and Gallery Relations Committee
Stefano Rabolli Pansera, Senior Director at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, is an Italian architect and curator. He studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating with Honours in 2005.
After working at Herzog & de Meuron between 2005 and 2007, Rabolli Pansera returned to the Architectural Association to teach. He has lectured in Cagliari, Cambridge, Naples, Wuhan, Seoul, Rejkyavik and Madrid.
Alongside Paula Nascimento, Rabolli Pansera curated the first Angola Pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, and the Angola Pavilion at the 55th International Arts Exposition – La Biennale di Venezia, a project that won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation.
With Jonida Turani, Rabolli Pansera curated “Potential Monuments of Unrealized Futures”, the Albanian Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exposition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2014 and the Architectural Association in London in 2015.
Hedva Ser, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and Special Envoy for Cultural Diplomacy; UNESCO Artist for Peace, GFAA Advisory Board, Honorary Member
Hedva Ser’s body of internationally recognized work includes tapestries, watercolors, and jewelry, but she is best known for her powerful sculptures. Ms. Ser’s monumental bronzes have become symbols of peace, tolerance, and intercultural outreach around the world.
Hedva Ser is one of Europe’s pioneers using art in the goal of creating social progress. Over the years, her work has provided focus and physical connection to her efforts to build peace through art. Ms. Ser is the recipient of the prestigious Legion d’Honneur and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres awarded by the French government.
In 2011, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, similarly honored Hedva Ser, naming her a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Hedva speaks through her art with an eloquence that has placed her among the rare artists that has successfully brought people together to reflect and discuss some of the most difficult issues of our times, and continues to use her art to transmit the message of peace to new generations.
Through her exhibitions all over the world, Ms. Ser has placed her art at the service of peace, of which her monumental sculpture, ‘Tree of Peace,’ has become an emblem.
Maarten Statius Muller, GFAA International PR and Social Media 
Viktoria (Viki) Szanto, GFAA Young Visionaries and Marketing Committees
A native of Hungary, Ms. Szanto is a Master’s candidate in Arts and Culture Management at King’s College London. She received her BA in Art History and Comparative Literature student at the University of St. Andrews, where among other activities, she was a columnist for the school magazine and contributing writer for their art publication.
As part of her studies, she spent time abroad at Leiden University in the Netherlands, within various departments from Documentary film to Southeast Asian art.
She has volunteer and had internship experience at Christies’ London, the Scottish National Trust and St. Andrews Preservation Trust Museum.
Peter Trippi, GFAA Advisory Board and Judge Emeritus
Peter Trippi is Editor-in-Chief of Fine Art Connoisseur, the bimonthly magazine that serves collectors of historical and contemporary representational painting, sculpture, drawings, and prints.
He is also president of Projects in 19th-century Art, Inc., the firm he established to pursue a range of research, writing, and curating opportunities.
Trippi holds a MA from New York University in Visual Arts Administration, as well as a MA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
As director of New York’s Dahesh Museum of Art, Trippi guided its renovation of the former IBM Gallery and presentation of nine exhibitions of 19th-century European art. In 2002, Phaidon Press published Trippi’s 250-page monograph J W Waterhouse, which reassesses the Victorian painter and Royal Academician best known for his Lady of Shalott at Tate Britain. Trippi went on to guest-curate the Waterhouse retrospective that appeared at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
He recently co-curated a touring exhibition about the Victorian painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, which opened in 2016 at the Fries Museum, in the artist’s Dutch native city, Leeuwarden and traveled to several additional locations. In 2013, Trippi completed a two-year term as president of the nonprofit organization Historians of British Art, and then became president of the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art.