Myriam Ullens

Baroness Myriam Ullens de Schooten Whettnall ( Lechien; 23 September 1952 – 29 March 2023) was a Belgian entrepreneur engaged in art, fashion, and philanthropy.

Early life and education

Myriam Ullens was born in Cologne, West Germany, on 23 September 1952. She spent her childhood in the country where her father was an officer in the Belgian Forces in Germany. When she turned five, she moved to a boarding school in Belgium and studied in Namur, and then in Liège.

Early business

At the age of 24, Ullens launched her first business "La Petite Salade", a salad delivery service that she sold four years later.

Immediately thereafter, she created a professional pastry shop named "Sweetly" in Brussels.

In 1991, she met her future husband, Baron Guy Ullens, a Belgian businessman, and shortly thereafter she sold Sweetly in order to devote her time to non-profit organizations.

Foundations

Education

Ullens built institutions to support Nepal's disadvantaged children, including two orphanages focused on helping children suffering from malnutrition.

Mimi Ullens Foundation

After surviving breast cancer, Ullens recognised a need for patients to refocus on their physical and mental well-being while being treated in hospitals. In 2006, she founded the Mimi Ullens Foundation to support seven centres that are located within the oncology departments of its partner hospitals. These centres provide 15,000 cancer patients with psychological support.

Art

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is an independent, not-for-profit art center serving a global Beijing public. It was founded by Guy and Myriam Ullens in November 2007.

On 11 February 2017, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art received the 2016 Global Fine Art Awards for Best Contemporary / Postwar / SoloArtist “Rauschenberg in China”.

Ullens sat on the board of trustees of The Royal Drawing School, which was founded by the then Prince of Wales to provide a space where expert teachers could help students with part-time drawing courses each year for adults and children of all ages and abilities.

Maison Ullens

In 2009, Ullens launched her own fashion label, named .

Writer Ullens published her first novel, Distant Starless Nights, in February 2017.

Personal life and death

Ullens was married three times. She married Belgian soldier Roger Lemaire when she was 18 and divorced when she was in her mid-20s. They had two children, Gilles Lemaire and Virginie Degryse. Her second marriage was to Christian de Moffarts, a conference planner. She was married to Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten Whettnall since 1999.