Announcing the FCINY's new International Advisory Board

Mirkku Kullberg (co-chair) is a design and business executive living in New York; Berlin; and Loviisa, Finland. Leading projects for Poltrona Frau in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami she also serves as the president of the Alvar Aalto Foundation. Known as a creative thinker, provocateur, and speaker, Kullberg seeks to expand the boundaries between art, design, media, and technology as well as their interactions with climate change and circular economy. Mirkku holds an IDBM pro diploma in interdisciplinary studies for design, business, and technology from the Aalto University. Her past experience includes roles as the CEO of Artek and as Segment Executive at Vitra. One of her recent accomplishments is the creative design and concept development of the new Hotel St. George in Helsinki.

Nina Kurth (co-chair) is a global executive at IBM. Based in New York, she leads the strategy, development and transformation of global practices for Digital Strategy, Cognitive Process Transformation and Cloud Application Innovation across 7 geographies. Prior to her current role, she has held many leadership positions in North America, Asia, and Europe with responsibilities in different IBM business units. Member of the IBM Industry Academy, and Executive Sponsor for 'Women at IBM,’ she holds an M.B.A. from University of Adelaide, Australia and a B.B.A. from Acadia University, Canada. More recently, Nina has attended executive training in the London Business School and the Boston University Graduate School of Management.  

Asko Ahokas provides insight to clients across the disciplines of art, design, management, and investment. After a decade of experience bridging art and design in the commercial and museum fields, he began his own consulting service based in New York City in the early 2000s. Today his services have grown into several related areas of expertise, extending to international brands and corporations, trade shows and fair organizations as well as the private sector.

Nina Baier-Bischofberger is co-founder of Baier Bischofberger Architects based in Zurich, Switzerland. The firm brings together new technologies, parametric design and traditional craftsmanship to create carefully detailed spaces and buildings that engage with their spatial context. The practice is best known for the numerous exhibition and storage buildings built for the art and design collection of the Gallery Bruno Bischofberger. Nina holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and B.S. in Art and Design from MIT and a Master’s degree in Architecture from Columbia University.

Dr. James E. Cottrell is the Chair Emeritus, Department of Anesthesiology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York City. He serves as a member of the New York State Board of Regents and is an avid collector of contemporary fine-art. As an academician clinician, Dr. Cottrell has served on the medical staff of numerous prestigious hospitals and helped to found the subspecialty of Neuro-Anesthesiology - being the first Editor in Chief of the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesia. James received his Medical Degree from West Virginia University and did his postgraduate training and fellowship in Pittsburgh. He has received multiple awards for his work, including a Leadership Award from the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health in 2016 and the Elite Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists in 2010. James E. Cottrell has a great interest in the visual and performing arts and has served on the Director’s Council of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Prix Marcel Duchamp as well as the Guerlain Drawing Prize Committee in Paris.

Marianne Goebl is a design professional specialized in the development and dissemination of projects at the intersection of culture and commerce. Since 2014, Marianne has been the Managing Director of the Finnish design company Artek, founded by Alvar Aalto and likeminded idealists in 1935. From 2011 to 2014, she served as director of the fair Design Miami/, the “Global Forum for Design,” with yearly events in Basel/Switzerland and Miami/USA.  Before, she spent a decade with the Swiss furniture company Vitra, most recently as head of international public relations. Marianne Goebl is Austrian and studied economics at the Vienna Business School and HEC Paris.

Aki Karja is the Founder and CEO of Artfare, a curated marketplace for fine art that directly connects professional artists with collectors. Prior to starting Artfare, from 2004 until late 2017 Aki worked as a public market investor at three different hedge funds—Newbrook Capital, Millennium, and Royal Capital. From 2004 until 2006 he was an Analyst in Blackstone Group's Private Equity division, and he began his career at Morgan Stanley in 2001 in New York. Aki is an active skateboarder and lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Peter MacKeith is dean and professor of architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas. Since receiving a Fulbright Fellowship to Finland in 1990, MacKeith has worked as a liaison between the architecture, art and design cultures of the United States, Finland and the Nordic region. Through the years, MacKeith has curated numerous exhibitions and lectured extensively on modern and contemporary Finnish and Nordic architecture. MacKeith has previously served as Honorary Consul for Finland in the state of Missouri (2012-2014). In recognition for his contributions to the advancement of Finnish culture, MacKeith was installed as a Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland in 2014. MacKeith received his BA in Literature and International Relations as an Echols Scholar from the University of Virginia and his MA in Architecture from Yale University. MacKeith is an honored educator and administrator, recognized with several prestigious awards, among them “design educator of the year” by Design Intelligence.

Cara McCarty is the Director of Curatorial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York since 2007. Prior to that, she held curatorial positions in design at both at the Saint Louis Art Museum and The Museum of Modern Art. Cara’s passion for Finland began while traveling there after high school and she has been an avid user and advocate of Finnish design since childhood. Cara holds a B.A. in Art History from Stanford University, and attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design as a Loeb Fellow for leaders in design. She also attended Parsons School of Design, and serves on the board of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and on the Alumni Council of the Loeb Fellowship.

Toshiko Mori is an architect, founder, and principal of the firm Toshiko Mori Architect and the think tank VisionArc. She is also a Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her current projects include the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch Master Plan and the Buffalo Botanical Garden addition and expansion. Toshiko graduated from the Cooper Union School of Architecture and has received an Honorary M.Arch from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been the jury chair for the Alvar Aalto Medal, and in 2017 gave an Architecture Day lecture regarding Aalto’s legacy, on the date of his birthday in Finland. She has won numerous awards, including recently the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education and Architectural Record’s 2019 Women in Architecture Design Leader Award.

Alex Mustonen is a co-founder and partner at Snarkitecture, a New York-based collaborative design practice established to investigate the boundaries between the disciplines of art and architecture. Mustonen is a graduate of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union.

Bruce Oreck is the former U.S. Ambassador to Finland during 2009–2015 and is currently an Executive in Residence at the Aalto University School of Business. He has initiated many projects relating to business and culture in Helsinki, and is known for his work within sustainability. Prior to Bruce’s political work, he practiced law with a specialization in taxation. He has a passion for sports and the outdoors. Bruce holds a B.A. from The John Hopkins University, a Master of Laws from New York University and a Juris Doctorate from Louisiana University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, such as the United States Navy’s Distinguished Service Award and the only non-Finn to be awarded the City of Helsinki’s Golden Medal. He divides his time between New York, Helsinki, and Mexico.

Dr. Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen is an author, Assistant Dean and Associate Professor at Yale School of Architecture, where she teaches design, history, and theory of architecture. Her scholarly work deals with the genesis and meaning of form in various geographic and historical contexts. She is the author of several books on 20th century architecture including Alvar Aalto: Architecture, Modernity and Geopolitics (Yale University Press, 2009), and Exhibit A: Exhibitions that Transformed Architecture (London: Phaidon Press, 2018) and co-editor with Donald Albrecht of Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future (Yale University Press, 2006). She is currently completing a manuscript on Le Carré Bleu, a legendary little architecture magazine launched from Helsinki in 1958, for Getty.

Peter Reed is the Senior Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He previously held the position of Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum and has curated numerous exhibitions and contributed to equally many catalogs and publications. Before joining the staff at MoMA, Peter taught art history at the University of Pennsylvania and was Director of Research for Penn’s Architectural Archives. Peter completed his B.A. in art history at Lake Forest College and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania. In recognition of his professional contributions, the government of Finland decorated him with the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

Esa-Pekka Salonen restless innovation drives him constantly to reposition classical music in the 21st century. He is known as both a composer and conductor and is currently the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. He is the Music Director Designate of the San Francisco Symphony; the 2020-21 season will be his first as Music Director. He is Artist in Association at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. He recently joined the faculty of LA’s Colburn School, where he developed, leads, and directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. He is the Conductor Laureate for both the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009. Salonen co-founded—and from 2003 until 2018 served as the Artistic Director for—the annual Baltic Sea Festival, which invites celebrated artists to promote unity and ecological awareness among the countries around the Baltic Sea.

Marko Salonen is the Executive Director of the Finnish American Chamber of Commerce in New York. He fosters economic ties between Finland and the United States and promotes bilateral trade and investments between the two countries. Marko is a business enthusiast with a great deal of international experience developing and leading programs to build healthy startup and scaleup ecosystems and assisting founders to obtain the resources and knowledge to expand and scale their businesses. Marko holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Technology from the Aalto University School of Business and serves on the Board of the European-American Chamber of Commerce in the United States.

Tina Vaz is the Head of Artist in Residence and Analog Research Lab at Facebook. Before that she worked as deputy director of global communications at the Guggenheim Foundation where she managed its marketing, public relations, and social media initiatives. She is a creative and critical thinker with significant record of accomplishment in complex, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven environments. Tina holds a degree in journalism from Boston University and resides in San Francisco.