Zain Al Shaker
Co-Founder & CEO, XOC
Zain Al Shaker is the strategic force behind XOC, leading the firm as Co-Founder and CEO with a focus on transforming how art, culture, and heritage initiatives are conceived and delivered. With a background in corporate strategy and creative enterprise, she brings a rare blend of operational rigor and cultural intelligence to every project the firm undertakes.
Zain oversees XOC’s strategic direction, partnerships, and execution — guiding clients through the development of sustainable cultural ecosystems, heritage activation models, and future-focused arts programs. Her leadership is defined by clarity, purpose, and a commitment to building structures that honor cultural authenticity while driving measurable impact.
At XOC, she is shaping a new standard for cultural consulting in the region: visionary, grounded, and built for long-term transformation.
Sheikha Hala Al Khalifa
Co-Founder & Creative Director, XOC
Sheikha Hala bint Mohammed Al Khalifa is an artist, curator, and cultural leader whose career bridges creative practice and institutional strategy. As Co-Founder and Creative Director of XOC, she leads the firm’s vision for shaping meaningful cultural experiences across art, heritage, and design.
Her journey spans roles at the Qatar Museums Authority, the founding of Doha’s Fire Station – Artist in Residence program, and her tenure as Director General of Culture & Arts at the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. Known for initiatives that blur boundaries between disciplines — from Food is Culture to Artist in a School — she is recognized for redefining how communities engage with art and heritage.
Hala’s approach combines creative sensibility with strategic depth, positioning her as one of the Gulf’s leading voices in contemporary cultural development.
The Curators
Zain Alshaker and Sheikha Hala Al Khalifa bring art into dialogue with architecture, crafting experiences that move the senses and awaken memory.
Their work blurs the boundaries between space and story, turning curation into a language of emotion — one that invites people not just to see art, but to feel it.
