Gala Interview with...Lex Fenwick, C.E.O., Bloomberg Ventures

	Lex Fenwick at the Whitney's corporate gala. Photo/Amanda Gordon

• Who: Lex Fenwick, C.E.O., Bloomberg Ventures, former C.E.O. Bloomberg LP
• Where: The Whitney Museum of American Art
• Occasion: Black-tie dinner honoring Bloomberg LP for its corporate support.
• When: Mr. Fenwick had just greeted Leonard and Evelyn Lauder at the entrance to the museum; artists Christian Marclay and Marilyn Minter, Bergdorf Goodoman's ceo Jim Gold, and Town and Country editor-in-chief Pamela Fiori were already mingling inside

THE INTERVIEW (scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Related Audio" to listen to the interview)

Bloomberg LP is known for the contemporary art in its offices. Why is art a priority at Bloomberg?

 

We bought art that we hope inspires and makes it a more beautiful workplace. And we’re very big believers at Bloomberg in what contemporary art does: it shows you to do things differently. And I think it’s very valuable in the workplace where people tend to do the same repetitive things every single day. And hopefully people being surrounded by contemporary art encourages them to take a slightly different view on it, and to say, hey, I do this every day and maybe there’s a different way of doing it. And if you do things in a different way it starts to make them more interesting. Everything we do can be done in a different way.

Do you encourage Bloomberg employees to go to museums?

I don’t know if we encourage; we try to make it easy for them if they want to. So we are corporate members of many arts institutions not only in New York, but in London and Tokyo and other places in the world we do business. We at least make it easy for them to take their friends and family to go to these wonderful institutions we have in New York and other places in the world.

Is there a piece of art in your offices that particularly inspires you?

There’s a wonderful black chandelier done by Cerith Wyn Evans that emits Morse Code-like language and can be programmed to do any type of language. I love that. But all of the pieces are wonderful, and anyone who hasn’t been there should go there and take a look.

How are you looking at your corporate support of the arts these days?

I think we’ve tried to stay with our commitment. I think it’s important, probably more important than ever before to try your very best to support cultural organizations wherever they are in the world. We always look at other things but I think it’s important to maintain the support to the extent you can.

You’re not wearing black tie? Is this a sign of your thinking outside the box?

I apologize if it offends anyone. I feel easier not wearing black tie and at the end of the day I hope it doesn’t affect anyone. I’m trying to look my own style in my own way.

Related Audio