Executive Master in Cultural Leadership

Tim Marlow
Artistic Director

Tim Marlow is the Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Arts. His remit includes the RA’s exhibition programme and Collection, as well as Learning, Architecture and Publishing. Prior to this, Marlow was the Director of Exhibitions at White Cube (2003-2014). He has worked with many of the most important and influential artists of our time and is an award winning radio and television broadcaster. He was the founder editor of the Tate Magazine and is also author of numerous books and catalogues. He has lectured, chaired and participated in panel discussions on art and culture in more than 40 countries.

Rebecca Lyons
Director of Learning and Collections

An experienced lecturer, writer and researcher in art history and the history of collecting, Rebecca Lyons has been the Director of the Attingham Trust’s Royal Collection Studies, for museum directors, curators and art world professionals, as well as a curator for the National Trust. Prior to this, Rebecca was Director of the Fine & Decorative Art MLitt and MA programmes at Christie’s Education, London/University of Glasgow where she taught for fifteen years. Educated at Oxford, the Courtauld and Cambridge, her most recent publications include an essay on 18th-century collector, Welbore Ellis Agar, for Getty Publications, 2019, and a chapter of the forthcoming Royal Collection exhibition book for George IV: Art and Spectacle, 2019.

Axel Rüger
Secretary and Chief Executive

Before taking up the role of Secretary and Chief Executive at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2019, Axel Rüger was the Director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. During his tenure, from 2006 – 2018 he made it one of the most successful museums in the world, overseeing major renovations and a full redisplay of the collection, implementing new technological innovations and partnerships, and widening access. Visitor numbers grew from 1.4 million to 2.2 million a year. Axel studied art history in Berlin, Cambridge and Ontario and spent his early career in museums in the US. He went onto become curator of Dutch Paintings at the National Gallery, London in 1999, where he curated the highly acclaimed Vermeer and the Delft School and an exhibition on Aelbert Cuyp.

Dr. Tzo Zen Ang
Chief Operating Officer

Dr. Tzo Zen Ang joined as the RA’s Chief Operating Officer in 2014, to implement a transformational change journey in the lead up to our 250th anniversary and major capital redevelopment of our campus. She is responsible for strategy, finance, estates and facilities, technology, and people issues. Prior to the RA, Ang worked at the Royal Opera House and the management consultancy McKinsey and Company, where she advised clients across a wide range of industries on organisation and strategy matters. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Andrea Tarsia
Head of Exhibitions

Andrea Tarsia oversees the delivery and development of the Royal Academy’s world-renowned exhibitions programme. He trained in Art History and Film, specialising in post-war and contemporary art. Tarsia previously worked for the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the Whitechapel Gallery, among others, and curated many critically acclaimed international exhibitions. He has also contributed to numerous publications and scholarly catalogues and while at the Whitechapel, he helped devise and taught on an MA Course in Curating, in conjunction with London Metropolitan University. He has been a guest lecturer at several universities and art colleges across the UK.

Charlotte Appleyard
Director of Development

Charlotte Appleyard oversees all fundraising and partnership activity at the RA, including major donors, Friends, corporate sponsors and capital campaigns. She previously worked at Outset Contemporary Art Fund, and in the curatorial departments at The National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2012 she published Corporate Art Collections: A Handbook, a history and survey of corporate collections. She is a trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and a graduate of Oxford University, the Courtauld Institute and Harvard Business School.

Prof. Rachel Pownall

Rachel is Professor of Arts and Finance. She obtained her PhD at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2001, after obtaining a first class degree in econometrics and economics. Her research interests broadly cover the realm of understanding investor behaviour, with a particular focus on art markets and assets with an emotional attachment. Her work has been published in a number of international journals, including the European Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, and has been covered by the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Times, and the Economist. In 2017, she authored the TEFAF art market report, as well as the more recent special issue of the Online Focus: Art Market Report. Pownall currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Money and Finance, the Journal of Behavioural and Experimental Economics, and Financial Research Letters.

Prof. Wim Gijselaers

Wim Gijselaers is Full Professor in Educational Research in the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University. His research focuses on educational innovation, social determinants of team cognition and team performance, judgement and decision making, including problem-based learning. He teaches on a range of leading postgraduate programmes in Maastricht and as a visiting professor internationally. Gijselaers is member of advisory boards at universities in Germany and Switzerland, and serves as chief editor of the Springer Book series Innovation and Change in Professional Education. He regularly consults for industry professionals and has presented workshops for companies on topics around innovation and change. He is the founding editor of the Springer Book series Educational Innovation in Economics and Business. He previously served as the Program Director of International Business and Associated Dean of Education. Currently he is the Chair of the Department of Educational Research and Development at the School of Business and Economics.

Prof. Mariëlle Heijltjes

Mariëlle Heijltjes is the Associate Dean of Strategic Development and Internationalisation at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics (SBE), Executive Director of SBE-Postgraduate Education and professor of Managerial Behaviour. Heijltjes’ professional interest and expertise revolves around questions that relate to the functioning of senior managers and top management teams and her research has been published in leading academic journals. She enjoys working with companies and consultants, and has extensive experience in doing so. In her roles of Associate Dean and Executive Director of Postgraduate Education, she implements initiative her own ideas and findings in the context of the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. The interaction between science and practice is an important source of inspiration for her in the development of new education and research programmes and a continuous source of reflection on the effectiveness of her own leadership style.

Prof. Piet Eichholtz

Piet Eichholtz is a Full Professor of Real Estate Finance at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics and director and advises institutions in the field of public real estate finance. Eichholtz’s research interests lie in real estate investment funds, the growth in real estate values over the long run and the way in which commercial real estate markets are changing throughout the world. Previous research led to the “Herengracht Index”, the very first uninterrupted annual index of real estate from the 17th century onwards. In addition to this historical research, Eichholtz has also worked on international real estate investment including, for example, the structuring of international investment portfolios, risk management and ownership structures.

Prof. Hildegard Schneider

Schneider is a Professor in European Law at the Universities of Maastricht and Hasselt and holds a Jean Monnet Chair in European Migration Law. From September 2011 until December 2017 she was the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University. As Dean she was actively involved in the setting up of the multidisciplinary research centres: Institute for Transnational and Euregional Cross-Border and Cooperation Mobility (ITEM), the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE), Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM) and the Maastricht Centre of Art and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH). In December 2017 she resumed her position as professor of European (Migration) Law and her responsibilities as part of the management and research team of ITEM, MACIMIDE, CERiM and MACCH.

Dr. Boris Blumberg

Boris Blumberg is Senior Lecturer in the department of Strategy and Organisation and the Director of MBA Programmes at the department of Postgraduate Education at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. He has a background in business management and organisational sociology expert in questions on gaining and interpreting evidence. He is co-author of one of the most widely cited textbooks on Business Research Methods, now in its fourth edition. His research addresses the interfaces between entrepreneurship, strategic management and social networks. He is especially interested in thinking about bridging apparent contradictions, such as sustainable versus dynamic strategies, flexibility versus reliability, specialists versus generalists, control versus trust, etc. – or in other words, in “when the going gets tough”.