Frieze hires Frank Lasry

Frieze just hired a chief operating officer who has already run the machinery at Christie's, Phillips, Art Basel and Perrotin, which is about as close as the art world gets to hiring a pit-crew chief from every rival team at once. Frank Lasry starts at Frieze in June 2026 and reports directly to chief executive Simon Fox. (frieze.com) His job is not picking artists or writing catalog essays. Frieze said Lasry will oversee operations across its global fairs and initiatives, which means the systems that decide how booths are built, how works move, how VIP programs run and how a fair feels on the ground. (frieze.com) That role matters because Frieze is not one event in one city. Frieze’s own site lists fairs in London, Los Angeles, New York and Seoul, and its press office says the company now spans eight fairs worldwide, including Chicago and Abu Dhabi, plus year-round projects like No.9 Cork Street and Frieze House Seoul. (frieze.com 1) (frieze.com 2) The calendar is already dense. Frieze New York is scheduled for May 13 to 17, 2026 at The Shed, and Frieze London is set for October 14 to 18, 2026 in Regent’s Park, so one operations chief is now sitting above a chain of events that stretches across continents and seasons. (frieze.com 1) (frieze.com 2) Lasry’s résumé explains why Frieze wanted an operator instead of a symbolic hire. Frieze says he held senior management posts at Christie’s in Paris, London, Dubai and Hong Kong, became chief operating officer in London, then moved to Phillips in Europe and Asia before joining Art Basel from 2018 to 2023. (frieze.com) At Art Basel, Frieze says he worked across Basel, Hong Kong, Paris and Miami and played a key role in launching Art Basel Paris. That is directly relevant because Frieze competes in the same small, high-stakes market where a fair’s success can turn on floor plans, shipping reliability, regional relationships and whether top galleries trust the organizer to deliver buyers. (frieze.com) His most recent stop was Perrotin, where Frieze says he managed logistics, operations and specific initiatives across nine locations. Running a global gallery network is different from running a fair company, but both depend on the same unglamorous details: customs, crates, staffing, timing and clients who expect everything to work on the first try. (frieze.com) The timing is also about ownership. In May 2025, Frieze was sold by Endeavor to a new company founded by Ari Emanuel for a reported price of nearly $200 million, while Simon Fox stayed on as chief executive, so this hire lands less than a year into a new corporate chapter. (artreview.com) Frieze’s announcement says Lasry joins a company that is now part of MARI, described as a global live events and experiences company. In plain terms, Frieze is being run more like an international events platform, and that makes a chief operating officer central rather than secondary. (frieze.com) If you are a gallery, this can show up as booth placement, smoother shipping or stricter processes. If you are a collector, it can show up as better access, cleaner scheduling and fairs that feel less like temporary tents and more like repeatable global products. (frieze.com)