Elena Ochoa

Elena Ochoa Foster, Baroness Foster of Thames Bank ( Elena Fernández-Ferreiro López de Ochoa) is a Spanish publisher and art curator, and formerly a professor of psychopathology. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Ivorypress.

Life Elena Ochoa Foster was a tenured professor of psychopathology at the Complutense University of Madrid for almost two decades. She was honorary professor at King's College London until 2001.

In 1996, in London, she founded Ivorypress, a private organisation that undertakes publishing and curatorial activities.

From 2021 to 2022, to mark the occasion of Ivorypress' twenty-fifth anniversary, she curated a multi-institutional exhibitions programme involving museums and libraries across Europe and the United States.

Ochoa served on the jury of the Princess of Asturias Awards for its Communication and Humanities category from 2008 to 2010 and served on its Arts category jury from 2013 to 2017. She is a member of MoMA's Library Council and serves on the advisory board of the Prix Pictet photography award. As a patron, she supports a variety of museums and foundations including the Museo del Prado, alongside several international schools of contemporary art and photography, such as Spain's Academy of the Arts and the Cinematographic Sciences. She has served as Chair of the Tate Galleries International Council and as Trustee of the Tate Foundation as well as the Isamu Noguchi Foundation.

She serves as part of the board of trustees of the Serpentine Gallery (London, UK) as well as being the chair of its International Council since 2017. She has also been a Member of the Organising Committee of the Golden Trezzini Awards for Architecture and Design (St. Petersburg, Russia) since 2021. Elena Ochoa Foster is vice president and trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation in London and Madrid. She is also part of the board of directors of the American Friends of the Norman Foster Foundation.

She lives and works between Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

Recognition and awards

Academic and media career

National Award for Scientific Research. Entidad Abelló, Spain, 1984 Joint Spanish-American Committee, Fulbright Scholarship, Spain, 1985. Research Grant, Veterans Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health, USA, 1986. Research Grant, National Fund for the Development of Scientific and Technological Research, Spain 1988. European Award for Mass Media and Television, Premio Ondas, Spain, 1990. National Prize of the Royal College of Psychology for the Best Communication in Mass Media. 1991, 1993 and 1995.

Film producer career How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?:

TCM Audience Award for Best Documentary at the European Film Festival in San Sebastian, Spain, 2010 First Prize of the Jury of Docville International Documentary Festival, Leuven, Belgium, 2010 Best Cinematography Award at the International Documentary section of the Sichuan TV Festival Chinese festival (SCTVF), 2011 Nominated for the Goya Awards in the category of Best Documentary, Madrid, Spain, 2011

Shooting the Mafia: Audience Award Brussels International Film Festival, Brussels, Belgium, 2019. Best Documentary Award Batumi International ArtHouse Film Festival, Batumi, Georgia, 2019 Guerrilla Staff Award Biografilm Festival, Bologna, Italy, 2019

Publisher and Curator career Source: Gold Medal Queen Sofia Spanish Institute, USA, 2012 Real Fundación de Toledo Award in the 'Curator' category for the exhibition 'ToledoContemporánea', Spain, 2015 Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award, Spain, 2016 Ibero-American Patronage Award, Spain, 2016