Andrew Stahl is Professor of Fine Art and Head of Undergraduate Painting at the UCL Slade School of Fine Art in London. He is an artist who has exhibited frequently in London and the UK and widely internationally across Europe, Asia and America. He has received many awards including the Abbey Rome Scholarship and the Wingate scholarship for travel in South East Asia. He has also participated in public-funded residencies in Thailand, China, Australia and Sri Lanka. His exhibitions have been frequently discussed in international newspapers and art journals and his works are in many private and public collections both in the UK and abroad including the, Arts Council England, the British Council, the Government Art Collection, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Malcolm is a solicitor, with over 30 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer in the City. He was the Managing Partner of his firm (Hill Taylor Dickinson) for a number of years and subsequently went on to become Chief Executive of a leading set of barristers Chambers (36 Group) and remains a consultant to the set providing strategic, business development and management consultancy services. Malcolm is also a qualified mediator and is a member of Art Resolve and is a director and founding member of The Art Due Diligence Group. He was also the co-owner and manager of an art gallery in west London, specialising in contemporary art and emerging artists.

Jessica Franses specialises in art law, is a practising barrister with 16 years experience and has worked in art law since 2010. The development of her practice probably coincides with a wider phenomenon – which is the “professionalization of the art market.” The art market has expanded significantly, with many new international art buyers who come from professional backgrounds and from the financial sectors. With this comes expectations that art businesses – galleries, art advisers, agents, auction houses – will conduct their businesses in a professional way too.

Stephanie is a director for an international communications agency. For 15 years she’s shaped creative campaigns that inspire action and advocacy. The evolving skill of storytelling is her passion particularly in a digital age, and her work centres on how we come to feel about the organisations we engage with, be that through our screens or ‘in real life’. From purpose-led social media, to running large-scale events – for international businesses, start-ups or NGOs – Stephanie helps to bring an organisation to life. With degrees in Art History and Visual Anthropology, Stephanie has repeatedly returned to the arts as her first love and can usually be found spending inordinate amounts of time at the nearest exhibition.

Peter Batkin (1954-2018) was assistant to Contemporary Arts Trust’s secretary and kept the trustees up-to-speed on the charity’s ever changing role. He was a Senior Director of Sotheby’s, where he worked for 27 years. In 1988, he was responsible for opening up the Russian and Eastern Europe markets, commencing with the first auction to be held in Moscow of Contemporary Artists who were not members of the Union of Artists. He was responsible for discovering and making public the trophies of war which had been taken by the Russians, which included around 100 Impressionist works including Degas’s Place de le Concorde which had disapeared in 1945 as it had been hidden in Russia as a state secret. In 2000, he became adviser to the board of the auctioneers Phillips de Pury. He was an Executive Film Producer, Art Consultant, Security Consultant and consultant to the family business.

Katie Bannister previously helped CAT to run our website and our social media as an A-Level student in Shrewsbury, studying Classical Civilisations, English Literature and History. After having been awarded with Art Student of the year, she undertook an Extended Project Qualification focusing on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – which also won the College EPQ award. Katie obtained a violin scholarship and has since toured Europe with various musical ensembles, performing for the Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. Having spent time volunteering in Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, she developed curiosity and appreciation for the visual. Since then, she has obtained experience working on digital arts programes in Shropshire. Sparked by this collectively, Katie practices street photography on her film camera and has a growing personal collection of Pre-Raphaelite associated readings.