Hauser & Wirth Names Gallery Veteran Mirella Roma as CEO

Hauser & Wirth has appointed gallery veteran Mirella Roma as its new chief executive officer, the gallery announced in a press release Thursday.

Roma has been with Hauser & Wirth for 27 years. In the late ’90s and early aughts, she worked as an executive assistant to current co-president Marc Payot. She became an executive director in 2013 and a full partner in 2020. According to the gallery. she will work alongside leadership across Hauser’s many global locations.

“As Hauser & Wirth’s new dedicated CEO, [Roma] brings an invaluable depth of knowledge both of our history and our current business combined with an exceptional understanding of our artists, our team and the wider landscape of the art world,” Iwan Wirth said in a statement. “Mirella’s leadership skills will be invaluable as we continue to evolve and create new avenues for our vision of what a gallery can do and be in the future.”

“I’m deeply honoured to begin this new chapter in what has already been such a wonderful journey with my colleagues at Hauser & Wirth,” Roma told ARTnews in a statement. “I’m excited to collaborate even more closely with our international team, whom I hold in the highest regard, as we continue to shape and define what a gallery can do and be in the months and years ahead. Together, we’ll create new opportunities to inspire, connect, and spark important conversations through art.”

Roma succeeds Ewan Venters who joined the gallery as CEO in 2021. Venters will remain chief executive of Artfarm, the independent hospitality group launched by gallery cofounders Iwan and Manuela Wirth in 2014, until January 2025 or a sucessor is named. 

Venters joined Hauser after nearly a decade as the head of the UK department store brand Fortnum & Mason. He was the first person to hold the title of global chief executive officer at the gallery. At the time, gallery co-president Iwan Wirth said that, while the gallery’s first priority is always its artists and clients, “our business and the art world itself have grown dramatically in scale and velocity, and now that we are a global concern, it is essential to have a strong Chief Executive to lead our team and ensure that we can continue to focus on our first priority—and to do so with even more passion.”