Deputy Director and Chief Officer for Global Strategies

Juan Ignacio Vidarte joined the New York staff of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation as Deputy Director and Chief Officer for Global Strategies in November 2008. He is also the Director General of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and divides his time between Bilbao and New York.

Vidarte’s involvement with the Guggenheim Foundation began in 1992 when he served as Managing Director of the Consortium for the Guggenheim Bilbao Project, overseeing the construction of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. He was appointed Director General of the museum in 1996. Under Vidarte’s leadership, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Gold Medal in Fine Arts in 1999, the European Museum Forum Museum of the Year Award in 2000, the Tourist Appeal Award in 2005, and the EFQM Silver Q Award for Management Quality.

As Deputy Director and Chief Officer for Global Strategies, Vidarte is a member of the foundation’s senior management team reporting to Richard Armstrong, and is responsible for initiating and implementing new ventures outside existing foundation activities. He is currently working to ensure the successful development of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

Born in Bilbao, Vidarte graduated with a degree in economics and business studies from the University of Deusto in Bilbao in 1978, and took postgraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.