Family Office & Founders Event: Alternative Asset Investing

Michelle advises corporations, families, family offices, foundations and estates with valuation services, acquisition and sales of art, as well comprehensive collection management services. Michelle has been engaged in various aspects of the art world for over 20 years, including working in retail galleries (in Seattle), museum settings (The Fogg Museum) teaching university-level art history courses (Boston University and Rhode Island School of Design) and lecturing on various art historical topics in settings such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as venues in Seattle, Boston, Providence and Newport, RI. Michelle routinely gives talks on the art market to financial institutions and family offices.

Michelle earned her Ph.D. in Art History from Boston University and co-authored the Jacob Lawrence catalogue raisonné. She is the author of numerous publications on twentieth century American artists.

Jennifer has spoken all over the world on the fine wine market and conducted tastings of some of the world's finest wine and enjoyed the company of the wonderful personalities the wine industry attracts. She has over 20 years of investment experience as both a portfolio manager and sell-side research analyst. Jennifer founded her first company, AOC Advisors in 2012, from which the need for the Vinolytics software emerged. AOC was a natural outgrowth of her prior work in London, where she spent more than 13 years working in the finance industry and investing in wine, buying in the London market and honing her expertise in the field. While in London, Jennifer managed equity and debt portfolios for alternative asset managers and developed and marketed a proprietary research product focused on the equity and credit markets geared toward alternative investors. Jennifer is an Associate Member of the Institute of Wines and Spirits (AIWS) and is a graduate of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Diploma Program (DipWSET), one of the top accreditations in the wine trade. Jennifer holds a seat on the Liv-ex wine exchange in London. She earned her BA in economics and history from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. When not drinking wine or building technology, she enjoys golf, tennis, reading, her two boys and the art of her British husband, David.

Katja consults with collectors as well as insurance and financial advisors on the physical and financial protection of passion investments. With more than two decades of experience in the art world, she has insured private collections, museums, galleries and exhibitions for HUB International, AIG Private Client Group and AXA Art Insurance. Katja is also a guest lecturer at Christie’s Education Department. Throughout her career, she has presented on art and wine collecting in the context of alternative investments, asset protection, trust and estate planning and has lectured at The College Art Association, University for Applied Arts in Vienna, the UBS Arts Forum in Wolfsburg, and the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C. Katja has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reuters, Worth Magazine, Barron’s, ARTnews and appeared on CNBC’s Power Lunch. Katja has a B.A and M.A. in Art History. She is a board member of The Foundation of the American Institute of Conservation, and a member of The Friends of the Swiss Institute Committee.