Athena Art Finance announced this week that Jamie Niven, who quietly stepped down from Sotheby’s last year, has joined the board of the company as its first outside director:

Mr. Niven was Chairman of the Americas at Sotheby’s from 2006 to 2015 and joined the auction house’s New York office in 1996. Prior to joining Sotheby’s, he was Chairman of Global Natural Resources. He started his career in the corporate finance division of Lehman Brothers.

With strong ties to the not-for-profit community, Mr. Niven is a trustee of The Museum of Modern Art, Chairman of The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, and is on the Boards of Overseers and Managers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He joined the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies in June 2016 and the board of CASAColumbia in August 2013. He has previously served as a director for The Central Park Conservancy, The Children’s Aid Society, The Neil A. McConnell Foundation, AMREF, The Parrish Art Museum and The National Center for Learning Disabilities. A former Sotheby’s auctioneer, Mr. Niven has conducted over 550 benefit auctions, helping raise over $500 million for charitable causes.