Beatrice Leanza is a cultural strategist, museum director, and critic. She is a vocal advocate of a critical practice founded on social engagement, educational empowerment, and place-making applied to institutional and cultural agency. Leanza has served as executive director of maat — the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon, Portugal), director of mudac — Museum of Design and Applied Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland), creative director of Beijing Design Week, during which she acted as the founding director of Baitasi Remade, the urban regeneration program for Baitasi historic hutong district. She has curated, initiated and managed a variety of projects and events internationally, among which the research programs Across Chinese Cities, presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale at three consecutive editions from 2014 to 2018. She is the co-founder of The Global School, China’s first independent institute dedicated to design and creative research, and author of The New Design Museum – Co.creating the Present, Prototyping the Future (Park Books, 2025).