Chicago Business Journal 
By Lewis Lazare 

EXPO CHICAGO, the city’s annual international exposition of contemporary and modern art, is adding a new position, head of VIP Relations and Strategic Initiatives, which will be filled immediately by Eboni Gates.

She will be tasked with a job that has become increasingly important in the world of art expositions — cultivating deeper relationships with the fair's most important customer base, serious art collectors.

They are the customers who travel to art expositions around the world and make the big-ticket purchases that please art dealers and keep those dealers coming back to international fairs such as EXPO CHICAGO.

Gates has an MA in art business from the Sotheby’s Institute London and a BA in art history from New York University.

Most recently, Gates ran her own consulting firm, Gates Consulting Group, from an office in Chicago. A spokeswoman for EXPO CHICAGO said Gates will continue her consulting work part-time while holding down her new full-time job with EXPO CHICAGO.

Before moving to Chicago in 2018, Gates was New York City-based and worked with a wide range of not-for-profit and corporate clients there, including Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management, the Museum of the City of New York, and TD Charitable Foundation, among others.

The ninth edition of EXPO CHICAGO is set to unfold Sept. 24-27. In recent years, the fair has attracted more than 35,000 visitors annually.

Programming sponsors for the upcoming edition of EXPO CHICAGO include financial institution Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS) and the Art Institute of Chicago.