Manuel Rabaté has been Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi since 2016 and oversees all aspects of its operations and activity. Rabaté has worked on the museum since its inception, joining Agence France-Muséums a year after the signature of the intergovernmental agreement between France and Abu Dhabi, first as CFO, then Secretary General and CEO (2008-2016). Rabaté was Deputy Director of Cultural Development (2005-2008) of Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac for its opening, managing the launch of the museum’s first touring exhibitions. He is a graduate of Sciences Po (1998) and HEC Business School (2001), and a Knight of France’s National Order of Merit.

Reem Fadda (b. Kuwait, 1979; lives and works in Abu Dhabi) is a curator and art historian. From 2010 to 2016, Fadda worked at the Guggenheim Museum as Associate Curator, Middle Eastern Art, Abu Dhabi Project. From 2005 to 2007, Fadda was Director of the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art (PACA), Ramallah and served as Academic Director for the International Academy of Art Palestine, Ramallah. She has curated many international exhibitions and biennials, including Jerusalem Lives (Tahya Al Quds), The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit (2017); Not New Now, 6th Marrakech Biennale, (2016) and the United Arab Emirates National Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013), Desert X Al Ula (2022), Saudi Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). Fadda was awarded the eighth Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2017 and is an Alumni of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. In addition to her role as Director of the Cultural Foundation in Abu Dhabi she is currently also Director of Culture Programming at the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi overseeing Public Art Abu Dhabi, Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Art, and the Music Programme. She is appointed as the Curator of the first edition of the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial 2024.

Saeed is a features writer for The National, reporting on all things arts and culture happening in the UAE and internationally. With a focus on music, the publishing industry and Arabic pop culture, Saeed has covered some of the region’s biggest cultural and literary events, in additions to book fairs from Abu Dhabi and Cairo to Frankfurt and Madrid. Born in Abu Dhabi, Saeed lived in the UAE until he was nine, before moving to Melbourne, Australia, where, in addition to his journalism, he worked as a security guard, youth worker and video-store clerk. He returned to the city of his birth in 2011 to work for The National. Saeed continues to be amazed at the Abu Dhabi’s cultural development and expansion.