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Regional Directors
Anna Bates, Co-Founder of Make Make NYC architectural and design practice, brings an international experience in transforming spaces into vibrant, inclusive environments.The award-winning studio combines Scandinavian values of equity, sustainability, and quality with a mission to tackle uniquely American challenges. With over 25 years of experience spanning diverse projects, from public plazas to adaptive reuse and new construction including housing, high-rise buildings, hotels, museums, and commercial centres, Make Make is committed to effecting impactful change.
Anna Bates is driven to spaces and places that engage all publics and seek to surprise, delight, and inform with a focus on creating human connections, supporting diverse values, and making that transcends time and place. Her approach is influenced by her early career designing sets for commercials and plays. Beyond honing her abilities to make decisions rapidly and produce work very quickly with large teams, this experience taught her how to use spatial design to communicate while always leaving room for change, for imponderables, for growth. Her architectural work has expanded these notions to satisfy a more profound need to create designs with a lasting impact.
Anna’s most recent work includes Zuzeum, a museum and art centre in Latvia, and the book and exhibition INCEPTION, which reframes the concept of inspiration and authorship through the lenses of 111 notable architects worldwide.
Anna was also a founder and leader of ANNVIL Architecture and Design Practice in Riga, Latvia, from 2005 to 2023.
Victoria Pochtar is a New York-licensed attorney and former Latvian career diplomat whose practice focuses on international investment law and dispute resolution. She also advises foreign businesses expanding in the U.S., helping them navigate the regulatory and commercial landscape.
Before moving to New York, Victoria spent more than a decade in the Latvian foreign service, including serving as Legal Adviser at Latvia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and as a senior legal officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her experience spans international investment law, sanctions and trade regulation, proceedings before international courts and tribunals, and matters involving the United Nations.
Victoria teaches international law and legal research at St. John’s University School of Law and is actively involved with the New York City Bar Association and other professional organizations. She holds a law degree from New York University (N.Y.U.) School of Law.