Michelle Edelman, Founder, is a trailblazer in art and design and has led Traffic Creative Management and TrafficArts, a dynamic creative incubator in NYC, since 1996. She has been instrumental in charting the success of numerous artists and brands. Together with her husband, Asher Edelman, she co-founded M&A Arts (www.ma-arts.ch), merging the realms of art, commerce, and finance to foster innovation in the art world.

Michelle is an executive board member of Project Zero/The Coral Collective. She is a past board member of the American Scandinavian Foundation and Gotham Chamber Opera.

Michelle is Norwegian born, daughter of celebrated Norwegian-Egyptian artist, Britt Boutros-Ghali.  Her eclectic background created a strong imprint on who she is today. She was raised and educated in Norway, France, England, Germany, and Egypt, and moved to the U.S. to attend University of California Santa Cruz, CA. in 1982, where she received BA degrees in Social Psychology and Communications. Immersed in the world of art her entire life, her earliest memories include spending time in her mother's studio, discussing ways to make paint dry quickly, to the endless array of lustrous artists, dealers, collectors, galleries, and museums.  She and her husband share a deep interest in collecting contemporary art. Michelle is now also managing her mother’s archives and art affairs.

SAS Magazine cover story.

As a master brand strategist, Michelle thrives on understanding the essence of what makes a brand compelling. She has a remarkable ability to align even the most nuanced elements into a cohesive story that builds meaningful and lasting connections between customers and brands.

Her journey started with the study of social psychology, wandered through the world of art, magazines and photography and culminated with branding and art. Having been raised in Scandinavia and the Middle East, thrived on the east coast and the west, she brings her cool elegance to branding, design, and a global understanding of culture and trends on human behavior. Her career has traveled equally effortlessly, from ad designer, photo editor, artists’ agent, marketing executive, curator and gallerist at places like the Village Voice, CDB Gobé, Lister Butler, Mirabella, Allure magazine, Sisman Design, and Edelman Arts. She forged her own path by founding the groundbreaking TRAFFIC – the first agency to represent the individual components of traditional advertising agency.