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Jackson have persuasively argued that top exec- utive and CEO [photographic] portraits form a genre of images, which they refer to as ‘the family photo album of corporate capitalism.’14 Such im- ages, which often appear on company websites or on the covers of business journals, stand in iconographic relation to one another – the CEO photographic portrait can be recognised at a glance. Guthey and Jackson argue that, while striving for a sense of authentic identity which audiences can relate to, the CEO photograph- ic portrait is paradoxically hampered by its own conventions, which only serve to highlight its careful construction as a particular kind of im- age and the contingent, ephemeral nature of its medium. Similarly to many diffuse multination- al organisations, the photograph lacks a singular concrete location where it might be said to be found, making its authenticity claims problem- atic and elusive.15 While CEO photographic portraiture has burgeoned with the rise of digital media, the RP’s experience is that fewer portraits of CEOs have been commissioned by corporations in the last two decades. We may speculate that this may be due to a number of reasons: the effect of reces- sions which have taken place during this period; a perception of what is modern or fashionable; a preference for contemporary art with more ob- vious investment or resale value; or even a need to symbolise the increasingly diffuse and im- material nature of multi-national organisations, electronic money and digital communications. CEO portraits, like multi-national organisa- tions, are required to be available in all places at all times, to be responsive to the immediacy and hyper-visuality of the Internet, and perhaps port- folios of photographic portraits meet such rep- resentational needs better than the more static, finished nature of painted portraits. The photo- graphic portrait may be fraught with ambigu- ity as to its authenticity, but it is easily adapt- able in case of change - reproduced, retouched, or even replaced. Perhaps the materiality and the objecthood of a portrait are a little more difficult to quickly disavow, without attendant and pot- entially controversial iconoclastic connotations. The finished portrait of Sir Tim presents us with a painted image of the man in a photo- graphically realistic style. It constitutes a kind of formal bricolage between the genre of CEO portrait photography and the traditional profes- sorial painted portrait. Iconographically, it is re- cognisable as a CEO photographic portrait, but materially, it is a painted portrait, and as such partakes of a centuries-old, elite academic trad- ition. Its materiality (and the attendant expense) conveys a seriousness of intent regarding this ob- ject’s commissioning and production, which the ephemeral nature of a photograph might not ne- cessarily be able to equal. The painted portrait’s materiality announces itself as an investment for the longue durée. I’ve been having some really in- teresting conversations with some staff about me- morialising people and what you might do in a digital environment. How do you get some kind of permanence out of it? And there’s a heritage issue. Hertfordshire does not have a long history as a uni- versity but we’re at the point where we can start that history, so yes, it’s conservative, it’s traditional..16 If the painted portrait is a somewhat an- achronistic object producing symbolic capital generated by a financial surplus, it is also a me- morial form that is widely practised by univer- sities in Britain. Every commissioned portrait contributes to the preservation of a memorial language, building the stabilisation and legitim- acy of the organisation (and the community of sara ayres228 14 E. Guthey / B. Jackson, CEO Portraits and the Authenticity Paradox, in: Journal of Management Studies, 42:5, July 2005, pp. 1057–1080, (p. 1058). 15 Ibid, pp. 1069–1070. 16 Interview with Chris McIntyre. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR