Michele Leong

Consultant and Rights Researcher

Michele worked in V&A Enterprises, the business face of the V&A, for over 20 years. She was Image Content Manager for the V&A Images and V&A Custom Prints websites. She managed and trained staff and Erasmus interns on copyright, rights clearance, digitisation and keywording. During the consolidation of the bank of images for commercial use, Michele’s role became central to the business. She managed distribution of imagery to image licensing, brand licensing, product development, visual merchandising, press and marketing, as well as third party external partners. Some of the exhibitions her team worked on were Chinese Masterpieces, Club to Catwalk, Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton, David Bowie, Post-Modernism, Beatrix Potter, Sixties’ Fashion and British Design. She is familiar with management and provision of advice on copyright and rights clearance. Michele also has experience in Digital asset management, keywording and controlled vocabulary work.

Michele holds a double major BA in French and Chinese from Monash University, Australia and speaks several other languages. She has a Museum Studies MA from UCL, her dissertation was entitled Controversial and contentious collections – case study: Il Museo di Antropologia Criminale Cesare Lombroso.