Christina McAnea
Appointed from 26 January 2026 to 25 January 2030.
Christina has worked in the trade union movement for more than 35 years, leading national pay negotiations across key public services, including local government and the NHS. In 2021, she became the first woman to head up UNISON, the UK’s largest union, where she helped support public service workers through the pandemic. She also had an important role in shaping the new employment rights legislation.
Christina has been an advisor to various governments on industrial relations and public policy matters. She is currently a board member of the conciliation service Acas and sits on the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion.
Christina grew up in Glasgow and her lifelong interest in art began with her visits to the wonderful collections in her home city.
Ina Sarikhani Weston
Appointed from 26 January 2026 to 25 January 2030
Ina Sarikhani Weston is the co-founder and Director of The Sarikhani Collection, a body of art from Iran housed in its own private museum. The collection engages in loans, exhibitions, research projects, publications and philanthropy, including supporting academic posts. In 2023, the collection established Centre Sarikhani d’études élamite at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris.
Passionate about culture and convinced of the importance of collaboration, Ina has developed close relationships with partner institutions in Britain, Europe and the US. Ina is a founder member of the International Council of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Visiting Member of its Ancient Near Eastern Council. She is Chair of the Sarre Club, a committee of the Islamic Museum in Berlin, a Trustee at the Royal Academy of Arts, a Fellow of the Ashmolean Museum and on the Development Board of the Wallace Collection.
Two major exhibitions that she curated include Epic Iran at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May 2021 and Iran Five Thousand Years of Art with the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, 2021-22. Ina studied at Cambridge University, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Mazdak Sanii
Appointed from 26 January 2026 to 25 January 2030
Mazdak Sanii is Founder and CEO of Avant Arte, a curated platform connecting the world’s leading artists and public arts institutions with a new generation of enthusiasts, collectors and patrons. With an online community of over 4 million people across 100 countries, the company has worked with artists including Alex Katz, Jenny Holzer, Mark Bradford, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha and George Condo, as well as partnering with international museums including LACMA, Dia Art Foundation, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim. Avant Arte operates its own specialist screen-printing studio, based in London, which is now the largest fine art printing facility in the world.
Prior to Avant Arte, Mazdak worked for Rothschild & Co., advising companies on growth strategy, financing and initial public offerings, before joining the leading online music platform, Boiler Room, in 2013 – first as a board member, then as Chief Operating Officer – where he led on strategy, operations, marketing, product and finance, helping to shape it into the world’s largest online music broadcaster. He is also a Trustee of the London Contemporary Orchestra and was Trustee of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain from 2017 until 2025.
Abigail Harrison Moore
Appointed from 26 January 2026 to 25 January 2030
Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Leeds, Abigail’s research focuses on 19th and early 20th art and design history. Her monograph, Fraud, Fakery and False Business (2011) considered the antiques market in 1920’s England. She currently leads an international project “Whose Power” on gender and the histories of energy, after initially publishing a New Light; Histories of Women and Energy (2021).
While Abigail has worked at the University of Leeds for over 30 years, she has also taught in a wide range of educational settings including schools, museums and prisons. She is a campaigner for access to education in the arts and humanities, helping develop the school curriculum. She leads a range of projects for teachers and pupils, including Art Teachers Connect, the Discover ARTiculation Challenge and Discovery Days, and a national Extended Project Qualification programme.
She currently combines these two strands of her research and practice, working with Leeds City Museum’s Preservative Party (14-24 year olds) to co-produce histories of women and energy in the home.
Lynda Nead
Appointed from 1 November 2026 to 31 October 2030.
Lynda Nead is Visiting Professor of History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art having spent many years previously as Pevsner Professor of History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London. Trained as an undergraduate in the Fine Art Department at the University of Leeds and with a PhD from University College London, she is a Fellow and Trustee/Director of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Lynda has held several advisory and governance roles in UK galleries and museums. She was formerly a Trustee of the V&A and is currently a Trustee at the Holburne Museum in Bath. She is also a Trustee/Director of Campaign for the Arts and sits on the Academic Advisory Panel of the new London Museum. An expert on British visual culture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, her books include Victorian Babylon Paintings, People, Streets in Nineteenth-Century London; The Haunted Gallery Painting, Photography, Film c.1900; The Tiger in the Smoke Art and Culture in Post-War Britain; and, most recently, British Blonde Women, Desire and the Image in Post-War Britain. She has also worked as a curator, and as a reviewer and broadcaster on television, radio and in the arts press.
Remuneration and Governance Code
Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery are not remunerated.
This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election.
Christina McAnea has declared that she is a member of the Labour Party and has spoken in debates at the Labour Party Conference on behalf of UNISON. Christina has declared no other political activity.
Ina Sarikhani Weston, Mazdak Sanii, Abigail Harrison Moore and Lynda Nead have declared no political activity
