AABC is a group of professionals from diverse backgrounds.

Anne Bracegirdle is VP of Business Development for Metaversal and co-founder of the Art & Antiquities Blockchain Consortium 501(c)(3). Her previous roles were Head of Sales US for Convelio and Senior Director of Special Projects at Superblue. Prior to Superblue, Anne was an AVP and Specialist at Christie’s New York. There, she spearheaded Christie’s Art + Tech initiative which culminated in two Art + Tech Summits, Exploring Blockchain (2018) and The A.I. Revolution (2019), in collaboration with Hyundai’s Art Lab. During her ten years at Christie’s she served as a specialist of Russian Art, 19th Century European Art, and Photographs. Anne speaks widely on the topic of art and blockchain.

Susan de Menil is currently the founding co-president of the Art, Antiquities, and Blockchain Consortium (AABC), a nonprofit 501(c)3 that uses blockchain-based infrastructure to guide the future of cultural heritage repatriation. Since 1991, Susan has worked as the director of marketing, administration, and interior design for Francois de Menil, Architect, P.C.  From 1999-2012, she served as the president and executive director of the Byzantine Fresco Foundation, the nonprofit organization that oversaw the acquisition, conservation, exhibition, stewardship, and return of frescoes that had been taken from the Church at Lysi in Cyprus. During that time, de Menil conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews with the many stakeholders in a complex international negotiation over the frescoes. Susan is the director of the forthcoming documentary on this project, 38 Pieces.

In her research and curatorial work, de Menill co-curated Angels & Franciscans: Innovative Architecture from Los Angeles and San Francisco, an exhibition which was awarded Best Architecture show by the International Association of Art Critics. The catalogue (with Bill Lacey) was published by Rizzoli. She is also co-editor of the book Sanctuary: The Spirit In/Of Architecture based on a symposium at the Menil Collection organized in conjunction with the exhibition Sanctuaries: The Last Works of John Hejduk.

Amy Whitaker is a leading blockchain researcher in the arts and assistant professor in visual arts administration at New York University’s Steinhardt School. Her research explores the frictions between art and markets and proposes pioneering systems of economic support for artists using fractional equity and blockchain. Her academic papers have appeared in major journals such as Management Science and the International Journal of Cultural Policy. Her work on Equity for Artists was a finalist in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Competition, and she is the 2021 recipient of the European Academy of Management’s Edith Penrose Award for pioneering research. Her research has been cited in the Financial Times, Time Magazine, Fast Company, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper’s, and many others. She is the author of three books including Museum Legs, Art Thinking, and the forthcoming Economics of Visual Art. She holds an MBA from Yale and an MFA from University College London as well as a PhD in political economy from Goldsmiths, University of London. She has worked on blockchain as an advisor to the company Bitmark since 2014. Her profile of Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta, the researchers whose 1991 paper is cited in the Bitcoin white paper, was published in the Wall Street Journal.

Vanessa Grellet is the Head of Portfolio Growth at Coinfund, which she joined recently after five years as Executive Director of ConsenSys. She is an experienced finance and technology executive with a demonstrated successful history of working in the capital markets industry. Prior to ConsenSys she was the CEO of IIH, an innovative Wealth Management firm; a key member of PwC’s global wealth management team; and served as a corporate strategy executive for the NYSE focusing on M&A. She chairs the Nexus Working Group on Impact Investing, dedicated to educating, empowering, and connecting Next-Gen impact investors, philanthropists, and social entrepreneurs. Vanessa sits on the Advisory Board of The Resolution Project, which is dedicated to activating young leaders through social entrepreneurship; and she is a Partner at Acumen Fund, which is focused on impact investing. She is also president of the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition. Vanessa is a Milken Institute Young Leader and a Young Leader Board member of the Off the Record lectures series (OTR) affiliated with the Foreign Policy Association.

Michelle Ann Gitlitz is the General Counsel at Flexa Network Inc. where she is responsible for advising Flexa on legal, regulatory and risk management matters surrounding payments, digital assets and blockchain technology.

Previously, she served as the Global Head of Crowell & Moring’s Blockchain and Digital Assets practice. Michelle is a sought-after leader, speaker, and writer who frequently collaborates with federal and state regulators and legislators on blockchain and digital asset issues. Michelle has extensive experience with virtual currency money transmission and is the author of “An Introduction to Virtual Currency Money Transmission Regulation” in Global Legal Insight’s Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Regulation treatise. In recognition of her leadership, the National Law Journal and New York Law Journal have named Michelle a Trailblazer and Crain’s New York Business has recognized her as a Notable Woman in Law. Michelle is a member of and contributor to the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and the Digital Chamber of Commerce. She also founded and serves as president and director of Diversity in Blockchain, Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to creating equal, open, and inclusive opportunities in the blockchain industry.

Lèna Saltos is Associate General Counsel, Global Director of Intellectual Property at URBN Urban Outfitters, Inc., parent company to retailers Urban Outfitters, the Anthropologie Group, Free People and Nuuly, where she is responsible for managing the company’s intellectual property, licensing, brand strategy, and social media matters across all brands.  Prior to her joining URBN, Lèna was a Senior Associate at the New York office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP where she founded the firm’s Art Law Blog, and where her practice focused on complex litigation and art law, as well as a wide array of intellectual property matters.

Lèna is involved with a number of legal organizations and serves as trustee of the pre-eminent national organization on copyright, the Copyright Society of the USA. She is also passionate about the arts and sits on the boards of the International Studio and Curatorial Program, a Brooklyn-based international residency program; the American Friends of the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, a 501(c)(3) supporting an Athenian museum preserving the legacy of the jeweler Ilias Lalaounis; and Ensemble Signal, a contemporary classical music ensemble which performs the music of Steve Reich and other composers.

Lees Romano is the Director of David Lusk Gallery, a contemporary fine art gallery in Nashville, TN, and is the project manager for AABC. A life-long passion for art and learning coupled with prior experience in art museums and galleries led her to expand her skills as a leader in the arts and explore the intersection of art and technology, curatorial practice, and collection management. She holds a BA in English Literature from Rhodes College and an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University.

Fiona Greenland is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. She researches art restitution and cultural policy, with particular interest in national and international governance frameworks for protecting antiquities from theft and destruction. Her book, Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy (2021, University of Chicago Press) was awarded the 2022 Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book in Culture from the American Sociological Association. She is co-director of the CURIA Lab (Cultural Resilience Informatics and Analysis), whose collaborative projects prioritize mixed-methods analysis of cultural destruction and recovery. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council (USA), and the Quantitative Collaborative at the University of Virginia. She has published in scholarly venues including the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Sociological Theory, and Theory and Society, and media platforms including The Washington Post, The Conversation and Artnet News. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan and a DPhil in classical archaeology from the University of Oxford.