LIVERPOOL.- Liverpool Biennial today announced the appointment of five new Trustees to the Board – May Calil, Chris Evans, Jonathan Falkingham, Sandeep Parmar and Anna Valle join Chair, Kathleen Soriano, and current Trustees, Juan Cruz, Roland Hill, Paul Hyland, Judith Nesbitt, John Shield, and Tony Wilson.

Kathleen Soriano, Chair of the Board, said: “I am delighted to announce these significant new appointments to the Board of the Liverpool Biennial.

With their experience and that of our existing Trustees, we now have a group of dedicated people with the multiple skills and commitment to steer us through our next phase of development as the UK’s most important international contemporary art commissioning organisation and flagship for the City of Liverpool across the world.

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Liverpool Biennial. This is cause for celebration. We are proud of our achievements so far, and of the work of our exceptional executive team led by Sally Tallant. We declare our ambition for the next decade to increase our influence on the world stage and in our own community.”

May Calil has spent 10 years working in arts development and has held posts at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Tate before founding May Calil Consultants. May is Chair of the Young Patrons of the Royal Academy and Chair of Chisenhale’s Development Board. She is an avid collector of contemporary art and has strong relationships with young artists and galleries. May studied History of Art at Cambridge University (King’s College) and has a Masters in Islamic Art and Architecture from SOAS.

Chris Evans is a London-based artist and tutor at De Ateliers, Amsterdam and Liverpool John Moores University. His work often evolves through conversation with people from diverse walks of life, selected in relation to their public life or symbolic role. He has exhibited internationally since 2000 with solo exhibitions at institutions such as Art Pace, San Antonio; Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp; Praxis, Berlin; and Project Arts, Dublin. In 2014, he was commissioned to make new work for A Needle Walks into a Haystack, the 8th Liverpool Biennial exhibition.

Jonathan Falkingham MBE is Creative Director and Co-Founder of award-winning property company Urban Splash. Jonathan has been working in the North West since 1989, when he set up design practice shedkm. He founded Urban Splash in 1993 with Tom Bloxham and has led large-scale projects ranging from Fort Dunlop to his own award-winning house in Liverpool. Jonathan is committed to good architecture and is a Trustee of the RIBA.

Sandeep Parmar co-directs the Centre for New and International Writing and is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Liverpool. She is the author of Reading Mina Loy's Autobiographies, scholarly editions of The Collected Poems of Hope Mirrlees and Selected Poems of Nancy Cunard and two poetry books: The Marble Orchard and the Ledbury Forte Prize-winning Eidolon (a rewrite of Helen of Troy in modern America). She is a BBC New Generation Thinker.

Anna Valle is a global business leader with large marketing experience, working in the FMCG industry on local, regional and global roles. She has solid experience both in emerging and developed markets across the world. Anna’s latest role is VP, Global Brands at Walgreens Boots Alliance, acting as Liz Earle Global Brand Director. She has a successful track record of managing iconic consumer brands like Durex, Cow and Gate, ghd and Johnnie Walker.