Nicholas Serota is Chair of Arts Council England, a post he took up in February 2017. Previously he spent almost 30 years as Director of Tate. During his directorship, Tate opened Tate St Ives (1993) and Tate Modern (2000, expanded in 2016), redefining the Millbank building as Tate Britain (2000). Tate also broadened its field of interest and created the Plus Tate network of 35 institutions across the UK.

Previously Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Nicholas curated exhibitions at Tate Modern on Cy Twombly and Gerhard Richter, and co-curated Henri Matisse: the Cut Outs in 2014.

Nicholas Serota has been a member of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the British Council, a Trustee of the Architecture Foundation and a commissioner on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority which was responsible for building the Olympic Park in East London for 2012. Nicholas Serota was knighted in 1999 and appointed a Companion of Honour in 2013.