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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.

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 President, 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.

Quresh Ahmed

Chief Executive Officer, 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.

Kathy Keele

Chief Executive Officer, Australia Council for the Arts

Kathy Keele was appointed to a three-year term as chief executive officer of the Australia Council for the Arts in December 2006.

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.

Annabell Lebethe

Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council of South Africa

Annabell Lebethe is CEO of the National Arts Council of South Africa. Prior to her appointment at the NAC, Annabell was instrumental in overseeing the development of sector strategies (craft, music and performing arts) within the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation. Among her achievements at the Department, her most notable is overseeing the inaugural Gauteng Creative Mapping Project (SA’s first creative mapping report) which provided economic indicators across 10 creative industries sub-sectors in Gauteng. She was also responsible for overseeing the establishment of the Craft and Design Centre Gauteng, a sector agency set up to ensure development of the Gauteng craft sector. Annabell is extremely passionate about the SA arts and culture landscape and has cut her teeth in the sector over the past 7 years. Her career highlights include working with a small consulting firm in Johannesburg which honed her project management and research skills. Her introduction to arts and culture was as part of a research team appointed by the International Labour Organisation to explore SMME development in the creative industries in SADC. Annabell is currently serving as a Council Member of the National Film and Video Foundation and is Chairperson of the Board: ABC Ulwazi. 

Guillermo Corral Van Damme

Director General de Cooperación y Comunicación Cultural, Ministry of Culture, Spain

In charge of the new Directorate-General of Cultural Policy and Industries since April 2009, Guillermo Corral Van Damme holds a degree in Law from the University of Valladolid, where he was first in his year. Since 1997 Guillermo was a member of the Diplomatic Corps. He was stationed at the Spanish diplomatic representations in Turkey, for Political and Consular Affairs; in Tanzania, as Head of Business ad interim and subsequently as Deputy Chief of Mission. He has also worked at the Office of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union (REPER), as the Spanish representative in the Council groups in charge of relations with the E.U., the U.S., Asia and the EFTA.  In 2005, he was appointed Deputy General Commissioner for the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the Prince of Asturias Awards. He has also subsequently held the posts of Director of International and Institutional Relations at Casa Sefarad-Israel and an advisory member for international affairs in the Ministry of Culture.