Global Advisory Board

The Beare’s Global Advisory Board was formed in 2023 to support and advise us in making the fine instrument market a trusted and widespread alternative-asset investment among institutional investors, pension funds, HNW families and similar organisations, supplementing our existing strands of work.

It is led by three of the most prominent international private instrument collectors over recent decades – Jonathan Moulds CBE, Kristian Siem and Professor Winston Wong OBE – with a focus on opening up the fine instrument market to a new class of global investors.

The work of the Board contributes to our long-term strategic goal of expanding the scope of support the Beare’s International Violin Society can offer. By reaching new groups of investors through the Board, we can ensure that a far greater range and number of instruments is made available on loan to a new generation of extraordinary musicians across the world.

Jonathan Moulds

During his 30 plus year executive career Jonathan has held various key positions including as International head of Bank of America, CEO of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Group COO of Barclays and Chair of the International Swap & Derivatives Association. He is currently Chair of CGML, the International subsidiary of Citi, Chair of the Board at Litigation Capital Management, Senior Independent Director at IG Group, the global leveraged trading platform and Chair of the Financial Market Standards Board. Beside his professional roles, Jonathan is actively involved in a number of charitable interests including Chair of the London Symphony Orchestra Advisory Council and the Benedetti Foundation. For his philanthropic work with various charities including the LSO, Jonathan received a CBE in 2014. Jonathan is a keen amateur player and for many years has been a globally renowned collector of fine stringed instruments. A number of his instruments are loaned to leading soloists such as Nicola Benedetti, Roman Simovic, several Menuhin competition winners as well as numerous artists through the Beare’s International Violin Society. He holds a first-class degree in mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

Kristian Siem

Norwegian-born Kristian has a degree in business economics and is involved in the offshore construction and shipping industries. Since 1972 he has been active in the energy industry. He is currently Chairman of Subsea 7, Siem Industries Inc. and Siem Offshore Inc. and Frupor S.A.. Past directorships include Norwegian Cruise Line, Kvaerner ASA, Transocean Inc. and NKT Holding. For his services to industry, the King of Norway awarded Kristian the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 2011. He was also awarded the Légion d’Honneur for Contribution to France. Kristian and his family have always enjoyed classical music.

Winston Wong

Winston was born in Taiwan, and holds degrees in Physics, Applied Optics from Imperial College London, where he is currently a visiting Professor, having also taught at the Business School of the University of California, Berkeley in the past. In 2000 Winston founded Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. in Shanghai, China. He is also Chair of the Hung Jen Group and of the Grace THW Group, companies invested in electronics industries in mainland China. In 2015 Winston was named in the “Top 100 Chinese for Economic Achievements and Contributions” list by Management World Magazine and he has been a supporter of increased levels of trade cooperation between Taiwan and the West. Outside of his entrepreneurial life, Winston has supported many research and educational programmes at Imperial College, where he helped create the Winston Wong Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology in 2009 and sponsors the Winston Wong Chair in Biomedical Circuits. In 2010, he also supported the Moon-Regan Trans-Antarctic expedition to the South Pole. For all his services to education and research in the UK, Winston was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Over the years Winston has remained close to the classical music world and has accumulated a formidable collection of very fine string instruments.