Adrian is the founder of AEA Consulting (1990) – a leading international strategy consultancy working in the cultural sector - and the Chairman of the Global Cultural Districts Network (2013) – a network   of some forty cultural districts around the world (gcdn.net). Adrian is a noted speaker and writer on cultural policy and management who has been profiled in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Crain’s New York Business.  He is a past board member of the Getty Leadership Institute, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, The Kaufman Center and Pathé Pictures . Adrian is a past member of the Governing Council of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, and the Royal Institute of British Architects' Architecture Centre Committee. He has been a Scholar in Residence at Columbia University, and has taught arts administration for Boston University, New York University, National Arts Strategies and the Clore Fellows Programme in London. A lifelong jazz fanatic, Adrian served as Executive Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center from 2007-2011 and the Jazz Journalists Association named him Jazz Hero of the Year in 2012 Prior to founding AEA, he served as Executive Director of The Conran Foundation in London, where he planned and managed the creation of the Design Museum. He began his career as a civil servant in the UK Treasury and the Cabinet Office, where he worked on service-wide efficiency reviews and privatisation, and ran the office of the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Adrian received his B.A. (first class) and M.A. degrees at University College, Oxford, where he served as a College Lecturer in Politics; and completed additional graduate work at London School of Economics.

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