Ariane Koek is an independent consultant on cultural strategy, working with cultural organizations and festivals across the arts, science, and academia. In 2017 she was appointed as the first director of the Science Gallery Venice, Italy. She is also a frequent keynote speaker, lecturer and writer internationally about leadership, creativity, and innovation through the arts, science and technology nexus. From 2009 to 2015, Ariane initiated, created, and directed the first international arts program at CERN - the world's largest particle physics laboratory. She is also an external policy advisor for the European Commission on digital culture and innovation, an expert cultural advisor to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, the advisory boards of the CERN Cultural Program, and the House of Electronica Arts in Basel, as well as a member of the French national think tank on culture, the Forum D'Avignon. She has produced and directed award-winning work for both television and radio at the BBC, and was director of the leading United Kingdom literature charity, the Arvon Foundation. She was awarded the Clore Fellowship, in 2008 in recognition for her work in culture. Ariane holds an M.A. in romanticism and modernism from Southampton University. She was a keynote speaker on the topic of imagination at the annual Salzburg Global Board Meeting in June 2013 and is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Session 547, The Neuroscience of Art: What are the Sources of Creativity and Innovation?