2024 Art+Tech speakers
Christie's is pleased to present globally recognised speakers for a discussion on artificial intelligence (AI), Digital Art and Fintech.
Francis Belin
An auction industry leader specialized in art and luxury, Francis is based in Hong Kong, he has been President of Christie’s Asia Pacific since January 2019. In addition, he globally oversees Christie’s Asian and World Art departments, and Luxury department.
Sales in Asia in 2021 reached a staggering US$1 billion – the highest annual total for the region, and in the first half of 2023, Asia Pacific accounted for 26% of Christie’s global auction sales, up from 22% in the first half of 2022.
Alan Lau
Alan Lau is Vice Chair of M+, Hong Kong’s largest contemporary art museum. He is also Chairman of ParaSite, the longest standing non-profit local art space. He co-chairs the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee of Tate, and the Asia Art Circle of Guggenheim. He has been a technologist for 20 years, with leadership roles in McKinsey, Tencent, and Animoca Brands. He founded McKinsey’s digital practice and led as Asia Head, co-founded Tencent’s insurance arm WeSure and served as CEO, and currently leads investment and manages a portfolio of 500 companies as CBO of Animoca. In the broader culture sphere, he serves on the board of Tapestry, which owns Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman. He also makes angel investments in F&B, retail, health & beauty, and technology.
Angela Chan
Angela leads the global venture capital fund of Swire Properties. The fund invests into Series A to C technology startups and funds globally across the verticals of consumer / retail, construction / architecture and sustainability. The fund’s investments serve to meet both financial returns as well as create strategic value for the company. She also sits on Swire’s Art Committee which oversees the procurement and management of the art and architecture across its real estate portfolio of office, mixed use, luxury malls and hotels.
Angela acts as board advisor to various companies in the luxury, consumer tech and entertainment financing space. She is also advisor to venture funds and accelerator programs such as the MIT Innovation Node and adjudicates for venture capital competitions as well university MBA venture programs.
Angela started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Economics from Brown University. She is a member of Milken Institute’s Young Leaders Circle.
Angelle Siyang-Le
In her role as Director, Art Basel Hong Kong, Angelle Siyang-Le leads the direction of Art Basel’s flagship event in Asia and will drive the Hong Kong show’s future development. Prior to her appointment as the director in November 2022, Siyang-Le oversaw the business development of Art Basel in Greater China, as well as show strategy and gallery relations for the Hong Kong show. In 2020, Siyang-Le led the first Spotlight event by Art Basel in Hong Kong, re-establishing an in-person platform for the art community to exchange ideas during the pandemic. Siyang-Le joined Art Basel in 2012 from The Farook Collection, a private collection in the United Arab Emirates as the Collection Representative. Concurrently, she managed the not-for-profit art space, Traffic and the affiliated artist studio, Satellite in Dubai where she focused her support on galleries, artists, curators and young art professionals. During her time in the Middle East, she also worked as a curator and writer, as well as co-founded The Mobile Art Gallery, an initiative that aims to bring contemporary emerging art to a broader audience. Born in Mainland China, Siyang-Le grew up between Mainland China and the United Kingdom. She holds an M.A. in Modern and Contemporary Art from Christie’s Education and a B.S. in Urban Planning, Design, and Management from The Bartlett, University College London.
Beeple
Beeple is Mike Winkelmann, an American artist who does a variety of digital artwork including short films, Creative Commons VJ loops, everydays and NFTs. In May 2007 he began creating a picture every day from start to finish and posting it online. This practice has continued for over 15 years and inspired thousands of other digital artists to start their own everydays practice. A collage of the first 5000 days of these images sold at Christies in March 2021 for $69,000,000 making him the 3rd most expensive living artist and kicking off an explosion in the NFT market while exposing digital art to the global community. In addition to everydays he has also released a series of short abstract impressionist video loops under Creative Commons known as the “VJ clips”. These free-to-use videos have become ubiquitous in the concert visual space and led to work with Justin Bieber, Imagine Dragons, Eminem, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, One Direction, Zedd and many other artists including artwork for the Super Bowl. Beeple continues his everyday practice to this day and has also started making hybrid digital/ physical work, the first major work of this practice HUMAN ONE, sold at Christies in November 2021 for $28,000,000 and had its museum debut at Castello di Rivoli in April of 2022.
Bharti Sharma
Bharti leads the global distribution and strategy for UHNW clients at Zerocap, guiding them through the evolving world of digital assets across spot and derivatives markets. She works with clients in APAC, the UK, Europe, and the UAE, helping them build portfolios that blend traditional financial products with the new opportunities of digital assets.
Before joining Zerocap, Bharti’s career spanned capital markets and leadership consulting. She began as a lawyer at Linklaters LLP in London, advising sovereign wealth funds, banks, and corporates on cross-border debt and equity transactions. Bharti also worked in Indian capital markets, seconding to Linklaters Singapore’s India desk, where she was involved in complex equity and equity-debt linked transactions. She also seconded with the Treasury Group at Lloyds Banking Group in London.
After nearly eight years at Linklaters, she transitioned into leadership consulting at the Socratic Leader Academy, advising senior executives across tech, finance, and education. This breadth of experience ultimately led her to the private wealth sector, where she now focuses on bridging traditional finance with the emerging world of digital assets.
Gary Liu
Gary Liu is the Co-Founder & CEO of Terminal 3, a company building Web3’s most powerful user identity and data oracle. Terminal 3’s decentralized data platform and zero-knowledge applications allow fully private data to be freely composable, enabling verifiable identities that remain publicly anonymous. Gary is also the Chair of Web3 Harbour, an industry association dedicated to advancing the decentralized internet and economy across Asia. As a recognized industry expert, Gary sits on the ICT Services Advisory Board for the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council and also serves on the Education, Promotion, and Talent Subcommittee of the Hong Kong Government’s Web3 Task Force. Gary is also the Founder & Board Director of Artifact Labs, a historical NFT company. Born in the United States, Gary grew up in Taiwan and New Zealand, before returning to America where he lived and worked for 20 years. He now resides in Hong Kong with his wife and son. Gary is an Economics graduate from Harvard University.
Gillian Howard
Gillian Howard is a dedicated entrepreneur passionate about the intersection of art, technology, and commercial strategy. A native of Hong Kong, she has steadily built her career in the evolving Web3.0 and digital art spaces. Though her work has been recognized in esteemed publications like Forbes, Financial Times, and Bloomberg, Gillian remains grounded in her mission to bring art to new audiences and foster collaboration within the creative community.
Gillian's contributions have earned her several prestigious awards, including the Prestige Women of Power 2023, Tatler Gen T, and the Visionary Women of Hong Kong accolade by Audemars Piguet. These honors, among others, highlight her influence and pioneering work in the digital art world.
With a strong background in commercial sales, Gillian has helped bridge the gap between traditional and digital art markets. Her expertise has been instrumental in working with blue-chip artists to reinvent their art through the use of cutting-edge technologies such as NFTs, 3D mapping, VR, and AR. She is passionate about guiding these artists through the transition into digital mediums, ensuring their work reaches broader and more diverse audiences.
Harshika Patel
Harshika Patel is the Chief Executive Officer of J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Asia. She is also Chair of J.P. Morgan’s Asia Pacific DEI Council, where she helps to lead the strategy for the firm’s diversity and inclusion initiatives in the region.
Harshika has over three decades of experience in financial services. She joined J.P. Morgan as Managing Director in 2013 and most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong while she was in her role as the Head of Firmwide Strategy for Asia Pacific. In this role, she was responsible for driving and implementing the firm’s strategy across its 17 operating markets in Asia Pacific. Prior to moving to Hong Kong, she was based in Singapore where she led the Asia Commodities Sales and Structuring business and the Electronic Sales business, delivering electronic trading services across macro products to institutional clients.
Before joining J.P. Morgan, Harshika was at Barclays Capital for 10 years where she held a number of key roles including Deputy Treasurer for Barclays Capital, and Global Chief Operating Officer for the Commodities business. She was previously a Senior Manager in the Financial Services Practice at Deloitte London providing assurance and advisory services to global financial institutions. She also holds various board member roles. Most recently, she served as Chair of the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASFIMA), the leading Asian financial trade association focused on developing regional capital markets. Harshika received her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Accounting from Manchester University and is an ICAEW qualified Chartered Accountant. She resides in Hong Kong with her husband and two children.
Hannah Siegel-Gardner
For the last twenty years, Hannah has been guiding brand strategy and operations for causes and companies. In 2019 she joined Art Blocks as CMO, building foundation support for operations and marketing. Currently, Hannah leads a new venture arm of the company, Generative Goods, applying generative technology and design to manufacturing and physical product design and production.
James Ho
Since joining Animoca Group in 2018, James directly managed or originated early investments into numerous Web3 companies (including Yield Guild Games, Opensea, Magic Eden, Matic and Immutable X). Many of these companies are today the giants in the Web3 space, and more than a few have achieved unicorn status.
With a track record of over 100 deals, James brings unique and battle-tested experience and acumen to Animoca Ventures’ mission of identifying the Web3 giants of the future, and building an ecosystem that boosts the performance of every investee company.
Prior to Animoca, James was a serial entrepreneur & builder. His past companies had served discerning global clients such as LVMH, Richemont, Chanel, Sothebys’ to name a few.
Karena Belin
Karena Belin, Co-founder & CEO of WHub and Co-founder & COO/CFO/RO (Responsible Officer) of AngelHub; Vice-President of the Board of the German Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong and AI lead, founding board member of Web3 Harbour, Member of the Startup Committee of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau (CEDB) of the HK S.A.R., Ambassador of StartupAsiaBerlin initiative from the German Senate in Berlin, Member of the Organising Committee of the Hong Kong Innopreneur Awards of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (FHKI), Member of the advisory committee of Pole TES, Normandy, France, Member of the Advisory Committee of Hong Kong Baptist University, Member of the Board of Managers of Hong Kong International School, Member of the HKTDC Belt and Road & Greater Bay Area Committee, member of the FinTech Association of HK.
International keynote speaker, judge and mentor. Multiple awards incl. 10 Best Female Entrepreneurs of the World award by True Global Ventures, Women of Power HK Prestige, and Women of Hope and Women of Influence nominee. Previously, Finance Group Manager at Procter&Gamble in Europe, Northeast Asia, and Greater China.
Kyle Ellicot
Kyle Ellicott leads Investor Relations for the Stacks Ecosystem & Bitcoin Layers and is an Advising Partner for Bitcoin Frontier Fund. He is a seasoned executive, investor, and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry, having recently served as a Partner & Managing Director at Bitcoin Frontier Fund, a leading investor in 65+ Web3 startups on Bitcoin.
Mireya Lewin
Mireya Lewin is the Director of Art Collections and Archives at Vale Group where, for over 8 years, she has been leading the team responsible for the custody and management of the late Paul G. Allen’s art collection in support of the executor and trustee’s strategy for the estate. Amongst her accomplishments is orchestrating “Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection” which grossed $1.6B - to date the biggest sale in auction history - with all proceeds going to philanthropy pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes. Most recently, she managed “Gen One: Innovations from the Paul G. Allen Collection”, a three-part auction, focusing on the intrinsic relationship between art, science and technology, which resulted in the highest total ever for a history of computing auction.
Mireya brings over twenty years of experience working in the management and development of multi-billion-dollar fine art collections, including valuations, art lending and strategic consulting. She holds a PhD in Contemporary Art and an MA in Modern Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University in New York. Additionally, she has worked in the field of wealth management and is a certified appraiser and current board member of the Appraisers Association of America (AAA) in New York.
Niceaunties
Niceaunties is an artist and designer based in Singapore. Drawing inspiration from the influential women in her family and the distinct 'auntie culture,' her work delves into themes of ageing, beauty, personal freedom, and everyday life through AI art. Her life experiences and architectural training inform the structure and conceptual basis of her pieces, while her focus on the nuanced behaviours of 'aunties' illuminates the culture prevalent in Asian communities. Influenced by surrealism, fantasy, and kawaii culture, Niceaunties' art champions empowerment and self-expression. Her work has been showcased globally, including exhibitions at Art Basel, PhotoVogue, and a TED talk in Vancouver. As a Fellowship artist, her AI video works are featured on Fellowship's daily.xyz project. She contributed to Christie's 'Creating Connections' charity auction in 2023 and was commissioned to produce her collection "Along the River" for the assistants of the Christie's Art+Tech Summit in 2024. Her art has been featured in Forbes, the Business Times, and on the cover of Telescope Magazine.
Nick Adler
Nick Adler has spent his career at the intersection of entertainment and technology. Upon graduating with his JD, Adler began his career co-founding the Woodstock Film Festival and worked as an attorney in Manhattan for a number of years. After honing his skills in the legal realm, he relocated to Los Angeles, California and transitioned into television production and talent management. As a founding member of Stampede Management and Cashmere Agency in 2009, Nick led Business Development efforts for the company and its clients. Over the course of a decade, Nick helped to grow the business into a multi-million-dollar enterprise with over 100 employees, before leaving to pursue new projects in Web3, cryptocurrency and the NFT space. Nick is an investor and advisor for a number of high-profile companies and luxury brands across the fintech and entertainment industries. Nick has also been a longtime business partner to Snoop Dogg, serving as a pivotal figure in growing him into a global icon. Nick is currently the co-founder and CEO of technology enabled fashion brand, MNTGE.
Nicole Sales Giles
Nicole Sales Giles joined Christie’s in 2012, holding various positions primarily within the 20th and 21st Century Art departments in New York. In March 2021, she was the business lead for the historic sale of Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, the first purely digital artwork to be sold at a major auction house. In 2022, she spearheaded the launch of Christie’s 3.0, the first fully on-chain NFT platform for an auction house, as well as led the sold-out inaugural sale of Diana Sinclair’s digital artwork. Prior to her current role, Nicole was the Associate Vice President and Business Manager of the Private Sales division and for the Online Sales group. She has also held management positions in Client Strategy and Business Intelligence. Nicole holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. in Art History and Economics from Duke University.
Philip Tinari
Since coming to UCCA in 2011, Philip Tinari has led its transformation from a founder-owned private museum into an accredited museum across multiple locations, a public foundation, and a family of art-driven enterprises. During his tenure, UCCA has mounted more than seventy exhibitions and thousands of public programs, bringing artistic voices established and emerging, Chinese and international, to an audience of over a million visitors each year. From 2009 to 2012 he founded and edited LEAP, the first internationally distributed, bilingual magazine of contemporary art in China. He is a contributing editor of Artforum, and launched the magazine’s Chinese edition in 2008. Having written extensively on contemporary art in China, he was co-curator of the 2017 exhibition Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2021 he led the curatorial team for Saudi Arabia’s first biennale of contemporary art, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale. Based in Beijing since 2001 and fluent in Mandarin, Tinari is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and a fellow of the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on US-China Relations. He holds degrees from Duke and Harvard.
Phillip Pon
Phillip Pon is the Chief Executive Officer of Artifact Labs, where he has been immersed in the digital asset industry at the intersection of art and technology. Under his leadership, Artifact Labs has built a "digital ark" capable of preserving digital twins of humanity's most important works, ensuring their immutability on-chain. This innovative approach represents one of the few AI-resistant technologies, unlocking a unique and valuable use case for blockchain.
With over 20 years of experience at leading fintech, finance, and consulting firms—including BC Technology Group, Lumenix, KKR, McKinsey & Company, GLG, and Egon Zehnder—Phillip brings extensive P&L and operational expertise across Asia, Europe, and North America.
Phillip holds a degree from the University of Oxford, where he specialized in Forced Migration, and an Honors Business Administration (HBA) from The University of Western Ontario, where he was recognized as an Ivey Scholar.
Ryan Ludgate
Ryan has been with Christie’s since 2014, most recently serving as a Co-Head of Information Strategy, shaping how data and technology can strengthen our ways of working.
Leveraging his past career in alternative investments, Ryan has guided many projects throughout his time at Christie’s, exploring art as a financial instrument and identifying opportunities to engage with the financial services industry.
Prior to joining Christie’s, Ryan had a 10-year career in financial services. In his last role, he served as Head of Alternative Investment Funds Management at Barclays Wealth Americas, where he oversaw the operations of its $6 billion private funds platform.
Sasha Stiles
Sasha Stiles is a first-generation Kalmyk-American poet, language artist, and AI researcher working at the nexus of text and technology, known for pioneering experiments with generative literature and blockchain poetics. Her practice refracts heritage and tradition through disruptive explorations of creativity and consciousness, probing human voice in an increasingly post-human age. Stiles has been recognized by MoMA, Art Basel, Christie’s, NPR, Artforum and Gucci, and received the first AI in Art Award of Distinction from the Prix Ars Electronica. A graduate of Harvard and Oxford, co-founder of theVERSEverse, and poetry mentor to humanoid android BINA48, Stiles lives near New York City with her husband and studio partner, Kris Bones.
Sebastien Borget
Sébastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, a virtual platform where players can create, play, own, govern and monetize their experiences using NFTs & SAND, the main utility token of the platform.
In addition to his role at The Sandbox, Sébastien serves as the President of the Blockchain Game Alliance in 2020, a non-profit organization comprising 600 key members within the industry. His contributions to the crypto and blockchain space have garnered significant recognition, including being ranked #4 on CoinTelegraph's Top 100 Most Influential People in Crypto for 2022. The Sandbox extends beyond the gaming realm, earning recognition in TIME100's prestigious list of Top 100 Most Influential Companies in 2022. Furthermore, Sébastien has been acknowledged by Forbes, where he was honored as one of the OC Top 100 Creators for 2024 in the Gaming category
Stanley Huo
Stanley Huo is Partner, Head of Asia, at Hivemind Capital Partners, based in Hong Kong. Prior to Hivemind, Stanley was a Managing Director at China Renaissance, a TMT focused investment bank where he advised many leading tech and web3 firms in Asia on both public and private market capital raise. Stanley has over 15 years of investment banking experience in Hong Kong and London, having worked at UBS, Citi and BAML previously. He also has web3 and fintech start-up experience as an early team member at Kenetic and Oriente. Stanley holds MSc Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, where he met Matt. He also received BSc Accounting and Finance from the University of Manchester, graduating with a first-class Honour.
Tad Smith
Tad’s career sits at the intersection of creativity and technology where he is a Partner in 1RoundTable Partners/10T Holdings, a leading growth equity firm invested in 24 companies around the world building the digital asset economy including blockchain and crypto innovations, exchanges, digital infrastructure, the metaverse, and NFTs. He is also the Chairman of The Fine Art Group, a leading fine art advisory and lending firm based in London that advises some of the world’s most influential fine art collectors. He has been the CEO of two NYSE-listed companies including Sotheby’s, the global art auction house that he sold in 2019 for nearly $4 billion, and The Madison Square Garden Company, home of the world famous New York Knicks and the New York Rangers as well as the Radio City Rockettes. Prior to these stints, Tad has served as the CEO or a division president of other large private and public companies in the media, entertainment, digital, and healthcare space. Today he sits on numerous boards: both private and public, for- and non-profit. He has also been a very popular adjunct professor of strategy and finance for technology, media, and entertainment companies at NYU’s Stern Business School for nearly a quarter century. Tad is a graduate of Princeton University, where he received the RW Van de Velde Award, and Harvard Business School, where he was a Horace W. Goldsmith Fellow as well as a George F. Baker Scholar. Tad lives in Florida and loves his family, which includes two dogs.
Thomas Thurston
For more than 18 years, Thomas has specialized in applying data science to venture capital, private markets, and investment banking. As Chief Technologist at Ducera Partners, he leverages AI to enhance M&A, venture capital and corporate restructuring. He served as CTO at WR Hambrecht + Co and co-founded a high-performance computing company that was later acquired. At Intel, he led initiatives using data science to drive growth and investment strategies, and led a joint effort with Harvard and Professor Clayton Christensen to quantify and predict disruptive innovation.
Ambassador Trevor Traina
An accomplished technology leader, Traina also previously served as the US ambassador to Austria and is credited with helping usher in an era of “new closeness” between the two countries. Before his tenure at the United States Department of State, he established himself as a successful tech entrepreneur and as a trustee of institutions such as the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Haas School of Business, and the Princeton University Art Museum. He has founded and co-founded five successful technology companies, which were sold to acquirers such as Microsoft, Mastercard, and Intuit.
He is currently the Founder and CEO of Kresus, a new cryptocurrency wallet and Web3 SuperApp. He studied International Relations and Politics as a graduate student at Oxford and as an undergraduate student at Princeton. He holds an MBA from Berkeley.
Yayoi Shionoiri
Yayoi Shionoiri is the VP of External Affairs and General Counsel at Powerhouse Arts, a purpose-built fabrication facility in Brooklyn with state-of-the-art equipment that allows artists and fabrication professionals the opportunity to experiment and work in different mediums. She also serves as U.S. Alliance Partner to City Lights Law, a Japanese law firm that represents creators, innovators, and artists; and an Outside Board Director to Startbahn, a Japanese blockchain company that is attempting to bring greater reliability to transactions. In the past, Yayoi has served as Executive Director to the Chris Burden Estate and the Nancy Rubins Studio, General Counsel to Artsy, Associate General Counsel of the Guggenheim Museum, and Legal Advisor to Takashi Murakami. She has degrees from Harvard University, Cornell Law School, and Columbia University. Yayoi has written about, and presented throughout the world on, legal issues related to copyright, art NFTs, AI, and ethics. She serves as a Board Director to the Asia Art Archive in America, and the Holt/Smithson Foundation. IG: @Yayoi_shionoiri