Phillips de Pury & Co. Appoints McGinnis as CEO

New York auction house Phillips de Pury & Company has promoted Michael McGinnis, currently the head of Phillips's contemporary art department, to the role of chief executive officer, effective today.

McGinnis has been with the company since 1999, when he left Christie's to found a contemporary art department at Phillips. Under his guidance, the company has set auction records for artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst and Ed Ruscha.

McGinnis replaces Bernd Runge, who joined the company in 2009 after a stint at the helm of Conde Nast Germany. Runge will continue to serve as a special advisor to Phillips shareholders, but will shift his primary focus to his publishing enterprises, having founded German and Russian editions of Interview magazine with Russian billionaire Vladimir Doronin in 2011.