Dimitris Daskalopoulos

Dimitris Daskalopoulos, OBE is the chairman of the financial services and investment company DAMMA Holdings SA and a founding partner of the Diorama private equity funds.

In 2013, he founded NEON, a cultural non-profit organization working to bring contemporary art and culture closer to the Greek public through exhibitions, commissions, grants and scholarships, and educational programs.

Dimitris is a collector of contemporary art. The D.Daskalopoulos Collection (1994) is an extensive yet focused collection of contemporary art, comprised of works by leading international and Greek artists, tracing the key aesthetic developments of the last forty years. The collection gives particular prominence to large-scale installations and sculptures, as well as drawing, collage, film, and video. Through the Collection’s open lending policy, he has supported exhibitions worldwide.

Thematic exhibitions of the Collection have been presented at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010–11), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2011), and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2012–13).

In 2022 a major body of 350 important contemporary artworks were donated by the D.Daskalopoulos Collection to four museums (EMST/National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, Tate, and jointly to Guggenheim and MCA Chicago).

Dimitris is a member of the board of trustees and vice president of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Chairman of the Collections Council and the A & M (Art & Museum) Committee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and a member of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. He is also active in the Tate International Council and in the past, in the Leadership Council of the New Museum, and a founding partner of Whitechapel Gallery’s Future Fund.

His contribution to the arts has been recognized on numerous occasions: he is the recipient of the 2014 Leo Award by Independent Curators International; he was honored by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation at the 2018 Guggenheim International Gala for his innovative philanthropy in the arts; in 2022 the Whitechapel Gallery inaugurated the D.Daskalopoulos Gallery; and he was made an honorary fellow of Goldsmiths, University of London in 2023. That year, he was appointed an honorary officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his services to the arts and philanthropy.

Dimitris was born 1957 in Athens, Greece.

He holds a B.A. in management studies from the Athens University of Economics and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

He is fluent in Greek, English, and French.