Following a strong start to its spring season in London, Christie’s has announced the promotion of two executives in its New York chairman’s office. Bonnie Brennan has been appointed as the president of Christie’s Americas. She previously served as the chairman of business development reporting from the New York office. Brennan is filling the role previously held by Jennifer Zatorski, who has been appointed to the newly-created position of Global Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives reporting to the office of Christie’s CEO, Guillaume Cerutti.
The news follows a tumultuous year of staff restructuring and an overhaul of the traditional sales schedule at the house, bringing Christie’s, along with its competitors into a new era of live-streamed auctions and virtual channels that have blurred long existing boundaries between international sale centers.
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In her new role, Brennan, who has worked at Christie’s for eight years, will head initiatives around strategic business development, as well as client engagement in the Americas, working closely with Americas Chairman Marc Porter. Among her achievements at Christie’s, Brennan helped secure and manage major estate sales such as the 2018 $367.5 million Barney A. Ebsworth auction, as well as the collections of Jayne Wrightsman and the non-profit Cleveland Clinic. Most recently, she appeared in a rare public cameo providing commentary during a Christie’s New York evening sale in October.
“With Bonnie’s deep knowledge of the market and commercial opportunities, she will be an excellent leader for the Americas region and a great asset to the business as we continue to evolve Christie’s forward in this fast-moving environment,” said Zatorski in a statement.
Brennan also led the house’s New York Trusts, Estates and Wealth management department in Christie’s Chairman’s office in New York, where she managed ties with estate lawyers and financial advisors affiliated with top clients across the house’s regional offices in the U.S. A graduate of Northwestern University, she worked in various business development roles focused on trusts and estates at Sotheby’s in New York from 1997 up until 2012, when she joined Christie’s.
As for Zatorski, her new position will be oriented around global business development, further expanding on her tenure with the house that has spanned almost three decades. In 2018, she replaced Brook Hazelton upon his departure from the company as president of Christie’s North and South America, and prior to that she was charged with overseeing the specialist art departments, leading the expansion of collecting categories, private sales and e-commerce. She received her MBA at Baruch College in New York.
In her new role, Cerutti said in a statement, Zatorski will be critical in “furthering our progress in key strategic areas, especially as we continue to integrate and improve upon the many innovations to our business introduced over the past year.”