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Board

The board of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies was elected at the third General Assembly held in Johannesburg, South Africa on 21 September 2009 immediately prior to the opening of the fourth World Summit on the Arts and Culture. The current members are listed below.

Alan Davey, Chair

Chief Executive, Arts Council England

Alan Davey was appointed Chief Executive of Arts Council England in November 2007.

Alan was Director for Culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 2003 until December 2006, having previously worked in the Department as Head of the Arts Division since 2001.  In an earlier stint at the then Department of National Heritage he was responsible for designing the National Lottery.

Alan has also worked at the Department of Health, where he led the Modernising Division and held the post of Secretary to the Royal Commission on Long Term Care.  He has been a visiting Fulbright/Helen Hamlyn Scholar at the University of Maryland and has degrees from the universities of Birmingham, Oxford and London.  

Alan is well known for his passionate interest in, and advocacy of, the arts, as well as for his unrivalled knowledge of public policy in this area.
  

Quresh Ahmed, Deputy Chair

General Manager, Bomas of Kenya

Quresh Ahmed joined the Bomas of Kenya in 1982 and has been its Chief Executive since 1998. Over the years he has worked to maintain, promote and educate the public about the rich and diverse cultures of all Kenyan ethnic communities, and has advocated the importance of culture and art as a resources for creating wealth and economic development while also preserving culture and art for posterity. A certified public accountant, Mr Quresh has served as the Chairman of ‘Kenya a land of diverse cultures’, an Inter-Ministerial Committee Promoting Kenya’s Cultural Heritage, and was a member of the Tourism Board’s committee on the promotion of cultural tourism.

Robert Sirman, Treasurer

Director, Canada Council for the Arts

Robert Sirman was appointed Director of the Canada Council for the Arts in June 2006. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s of Arts in sociology, Mr. Sirman joined the Ontario Government as a speechwriter and policy advisor. In 1980, he moved to the Ontario Arts Council, where he served for 10 years as Director of Operations and Director of Research and Policy Planning. While at the Ontario Arts Council, he undertook an independent study tour of England and Wales under the auspices of the British Council to study the funding practices of the Arts Council of Great Britain. He also spent five months in France, including three months as an intern in the research department of the French Ministry of Culture and Communications in Paris. In 1991, Mr. Sirman was appointed Administrative Director of the National Ballet School. During his 15 years in that position, he stabilized the School’s finances and oversaw a $100-million capital expansion program to triple the School’s physical plant and re-animate the North Jarvis community in which the School had operated since 1959. In 2002, Sirman was librettist for James Kudelka’s full-length ballet, The Contract, and in December 2004 was featured by the Toronto Star as one of the city’s top 10 “leading lights” in arts and culture. For more, see Mr Sirman’s ConnectCP profile.

Li Mu

Vice Chairman, CFLAC, China Federation of Literary & Art Circles

Li Mu is Vice President and member of the Secretariat of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, with responsibility for international cultural exchange, publications, and human resources. After a number of years coordinating culture and art management for the Beijing Municipal Government, Mr Li Mu was assigned to oversee the administration, organization and research of national arts awards. Mr Li Mu has a background in television. He has been vice president and deputy editor general of Beijing Television Station, and director of Beijing Television Art Centre, where he produced and directed a number of popular television dramas.

Kathy Keele

Chief Executive Officer, Australia Council for the Arts

Kathy Keele has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Australia Council for the Arts since December 2006.  She was re-appointed for a five-year term in December 2009.

Combining 30 years business development and marketing experience with a passion for the arts, Kathy previously worked in developing private sector support for the arts in her role as chief executive officer of the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF). Prior to this, Kathy held executive positions in marketing, business development and strategy with a number of iconic Australian and international companies including BHP, Telstra and Siemens.

Kathy has served on the boards of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Cabrini Institute for Research and Clinical Education, the BHP Foundation and Young Achievers Australia. She is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, CEDA, The Australian Institute of Management and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in languages and a Masters in Business Administration from Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle. For more detail, see Ms Keele’s ConnectCP profile.

Poul Bache

Director General, Danish Arts Agency

Poul Bache has been Director General of the Danish Arts Agency since May 2003, when the organization was established as a new agency under the Ministry of Culture. Poul is presently a member of the board of the Nordic Culture Foundation and chairman of the board of The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation. Before joining the Arts Agency he was for 10 years deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Culture; working primarily with policy matters concerning arts, cultural heritage and radio/tv. He has chaired several committees and been member of the boards of, among others, Aalborg University and Dansk Tipstjeneste A/S. Prior to 1993 he was with the Ministry of Education, working for a longer period as the head of the division for Higher Education Planning. In 1974 he obtained a Master of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. For more, see Mr Bache's ConnectCP profile.

Pius Knüsel

Director, Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council

Pius Knüsel has been the Director of Pro Helvetia/Swiss Arts Council since 2002. Prior to this, between 1998 and 2002, he was head of the cultural sponsorship department of Credit Suisse.  Mr Knüsel was the founder and director of Moods Jazz Club in Zurich (1992-1997), the cultural editor for Swiss Television (1986-1992), and a freelance editor and journalist (1981-1986). 

Mr Knüsel is a member of the board of the European Jazz Network and teaches arts management and cultural policy at various Swiss universities. He graduated from the University of Zurich in German Literature and Philosophy. His interests include financing the arts and culture, governance of culture, cultural diversity and globalisation, social inclusion and cohesion, aesthetics, philosophy of art, and philosophy of culture.  For more, see Mr Knüsel's ConnectCP profile.

Elise Huffer

Adviser, Human Development Programme, Secretariat of the Pacific Community

In her role with SPC (Fiji), Dr Huffer is responsible for the promotion of culture in the Pacific Islands region. This entails implementation of model laws for the protection of traditional knowledge, the promotion of measures to assist the development of the arts and crafts sector (including the protection and promotion of the natural resources the arts and crafts sectors depend on) and the promotion of cultural epistemology. The SPC covers 22 Pacific islands, countries and territories, and works closely with member countries, the civil society sector and other governmental and non-governmental regional and international agencies.

From 1997 to 2007, Dr Huffer held positions as Associate Professor and Acting Director, Institute of Pacific Studies Publications/Pacific Studies Program, Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development and Governance (PIAS-DG), at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. She was also in charge of IPS Publications, a publishing house specialising in the Pacific region and focused on presenting Pacific views and fostering Pacific writers and researchers. She has visited and worked in most Pacific Island countries and territories during the course of her tenure with the University of the South Pacific, and has extensive experience in dealing with culture as a cross-sectoral issue relating it to youth, gender and community-based education and training.

Dr Huffer's educational achievements include a PhD in Political Science, International Relations, Universite d'Aix-Marseille III;  Research scholar, Institut de Recherche Scientifique pour Ie Developpement en Cooperation (ORSTOM); MA in Political Science, Universite de Toulouse; BA in Political Science, International Relations, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). 

Venu Vasudevan

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture (Department of Culture), India

A native of Kerala and a medical doctor by training, Dr Venu Vasudevan joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1990. 

He has served the Tourism and Culture sectors in a variety of capacities. It was during his tenure as Director, Kerala Tourism, and later as Secretary, Department of Tourism, that Kerala transformed its market positioning and built up a strong private-public partnership, culminating in Kerala being recognized by the National Geographic Traveler as one of the 50 ‘must–see’ destinations in the world.  He served the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, and played a pivotal role in formulating the ‘Incredible India’ campaign. 

While working in the tourism sector, a key area of interest was the interface between cultural heritage and tourism that led him to invest personal time in exploring spaces for genuine interaction between the visitor and the cultural legacy of Kerala.  During his tenure as Secretary, Cultural Affairs, he was instrumental in setting up a new museum, ‘Keralam’ www.museumkeralam.org.  He played a key role in the improvement and upgrade of the museums and archives of Kerala.  Actively pursuing his passion for theatre, he is an actor in the theatre group ‘Abhinaya Theatre Research Centre www.abhinayatheatrevillage.org.  For more, see Dr Venu's ConnectCP profile.
 

Gonzalo Martin de Marco

Deputy National Director, Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes, Chile

Gonzalo Martin de Marco is noted for his extensive management experience in large international corporations, such as Tandem Adexus Chile, and management positions responsible for implementing complex technology solutions for the financial sector.  Mr Martin has led development projects for Nasdaq-listed organisations such as Unisys Corporation and ACI Worldwide.  He has worked in several countries including Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and the US, participating in the mergers of companies.

As Deputy National Director of the National Council for Culture and the Arts, Mr Martin oversees the administrative activities of the department according to the objectives and policies set by the Board and the instructions of the Minister/President of the Council. 

The National Council for Culture and the Arts is the government body responsible for implementing public policies for cultural development.  Its mission is to promote cultural development that is pluralistic and equitable among the citizens of the country, through the promotion and dissemination of national artistic creation as well as the preservation, promotion and dissemination of cultural heritage of Chile, and by undertaking initiatives that encourage active participation of citizens in achieving these ends.