Yana Peel appointed chief executive of London’s Serpentine Galleries

The Hong Kong-based philanthropist and entrepreneur Yana Peel has been appointed chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries in London.

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Yana Peel will work in partnership after co-director Julia Peyton-Jones steps down from her post. Photograph © Kate Berry.

The Chairman and trustees of the Serpentine Galleries today announced that Yana Peel, co-founder of Ouset Contemporary Art Fund and CEO of Intelligence Squared, has been appointed CEO of the Serpentine Galleries in partsership with Hans Ulrich Obrist as Artistic Director. The new team will teak the Serpentine into an exciting new phase, building on its current success and developing new programmes and audiences.

The announcement follows the news last October that the director of the Serpentine, Julia Peyton-Jones, will leave office this month after 25 years of service.
The Serpentine also announced the appointment of two new Trustees, award-winning artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Mike Sherwood, Vice-Chairman, Goldman Sachs.

"I am thrilled to be taking on the leadership of the Serpentine, an institution that i have admired and been involved with for so long. With Hans Ulrich as Artistic Director. I am fully committed to making the most exciting art and ideas of our time accesible to the broadest audiences". Said Yana Peel.

"I am looking forward to working in partnership with Yana Peel and embarking on an exciting new chapter in the history of the Serpentine. I am totally committed to continuing to make the Serpentine the place where artists want to work most and to be able to present our programme in ever new formats and to wider audiencies." Said Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. Photograph © John Offenbach

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YANA PEEL

Yana Peel is a British businesswoman, investor, writer and philanthropist and CEO of Intelligence Squared. Peel co-founded the Outset Contemporary Art Fund in 2003 and has positions on: Tate Executive Council, British Fashion Council, V&A, and V-A-C Foundation Moscow, Asia Art Archive and is co-chair of the Para/Site board. She is a Trustee of the Serpentine Galleries. Peel has also written a series of children's books, Art for Baby, for the NSPCC.

She is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She is married to Stephen Peel. Yana was born in St Petersburg, Russia. She attended McGill University, completed her post-graduate studies in Economics at LSE and started her career at Goldman Sachs.

HANS ULRICH OBRIST

Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968, Zurich, Switzerland) is co-director of the Serpentine Galleries, London. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris. Since his first show ‘World Soup’ (The Kitchen Show) in 1991 he has curated more than 250 exhibitions. Obrist’s recent publications include A Brief History of Curating, Project Japan: Metabolism Talks with Rem Koolhaas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Curating But Were Afraid to Ask, Do It: The Compendium, Think Like Clouds, Ai Weiwei Speaks, Sharp Tongues - Loose Lips - Open Eyes - Ears to the Ground, along with new volumes of his Conversation Series.