Michael Brand has been director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles since December of 2005, after having served as director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond since 2000. During his first two years at the Getty Museum, his priorities and achievements included resolving Italian and Greek antiquities claims and building new relationships with those governments. A future goal is to explore ways of bringing non-Western art into the museum's exhibition program. The first Getty director to lead the museum at both the Getty Center and the recently renovated Getty Villa site, he also sits on the boards of the Association of Art Museum Directors and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and is a member of the visiting committee of the Harvard University Art Museums. A native of Australia, he was formerly assistant director of the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane and, earlier, founding head of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia. He earned his BA (Honors) from the Australian National University in Canberra and his MA and PhD from Harvard University.