Bénédicte de Montlaur is President and CEO of World Monuments Fund (WMF), the world’s foremost private organization dedicated to saving extraordinary places while empowering the communities around them. She is responsible for defining WMF’s strategic vision, currently implementing that vision in more than 30 countries around the world and leading a team that spans the globe. Her background mixes culture and the arts, politics, international diplomacy, and human rights. Prior to joining WMF, Montlaur spent two decades working across three continents as a senior diplomat at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Javier Ors Ausín is an architect with experience in heritage preservation, urban planning, and design. He joined WMF in 2017, where he oversees the organization’s special programs, which includes Modernism, the Jewish Heritage Program, and the Crisis Response Program; as well as managing conservation field projects in five different countries. He has presented research at the Royal Geographical Society, the Society of Architectural Historians, and ICOMOS, and has been a guest critic in many universities, including the University of Toronto, Columbia University, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, among others. Javier holds a Master in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain, and a Master in Critical Conservation from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

The Ukrainian Institute of America, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the art, music and literature of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. It serves both as a center for the Ukrainian-American community and as America’s “Window on Ukraine,” hosting art exhibits, concerts, film screenings, poetry readings, literary evenings, children’s programs, lectures, symposia, and full educational programs, all open to the public.

Founded in 1948 by William Dzus, inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist, The Ukrainian Institute is permanently housed in the Fletcher-Sinclair mansion at 2 East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. The building is designated as a National Historic Landmark and protected as a contributing element of the New York Metropolitan Museum Historic District.