Founder, Suau Diversified
John Suau has led cultural organizations in Europe and the Americas for more than thirty years.
Born in Illinois, he studied art and industrial design before working with the Pecci Center in Prato and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. He later worked in Madrid with Galería Mar Estrada, EL EUROPEO, Lapiz, and EXPO’92.
In the United States, he served as Executive Director of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., where he created the DC History Center at the Carnegie Library in partnership with Apple and Events DC. He has also served as Executive Director of The Peale in Baltimore, Interim CEO of the Armory Art Center, and Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums.
At the American Alliance of Museums, he held the first staff role dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and helped found the first national coalition for diverse museum professionals.
He has advised the digital platforms Smartify, Verbit, and 3Play Media, managing relationships with more than forty museums and working with the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian Institution on accessibility.
He now leads IDbGLAM and Opportunity Abundance under Suau Diversified.
Selected outcomes
- $3.5 million raised for arts and culture
- Tenfold growth in membership
- Programs extended to more than 7,500 residents
- Co-creator of the Building Museums symposium
- Educational programming developed with the Smithsonian Institution
Confident, imaginative, focused, passionate, eloquent, transformative, inspiring, dedicated — these words unhesitatingly spring to mind when I reflect on what John has brought to his past positions.
Edward (Ted) Phillips, former Director of Exhibitions, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum