About

Two decades of culture, commerce and live experience.

The Ground is led by founder Maree Di Pasquale. Around her is a hand-picked team of strategists, designers, producers and content makers who have delivered some of the region's most ambitious consumer shows, brand activations and cultural moments, from Melbourne and Sydney to Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.

Portrait of Maree Di Pasquale

Maree Di Pasquale

Founder

Maree founded The Ground to give brands what she has spent her career building: experiences that move people and move the numbers. She works directly with every client, from the first brief to opening night.

As Group CEO of The Arinex Group she ran a $30M revenue portfolio with more than 60 live projects across Australia, New Zealand and Asia, including the record-breaking Melbourne Motor Show (103,000+ visitors) and Women Deliver 2026 (6,100 delegates from 189 countries). Within the group she launched the experiential agency fieldstate, delivering live experiences for Universal Studios, Mattel, Tesla, BYD, Zeekr and Harley-Davidson.

Before that, as CEO of Melbourne Art Foundation, she turned Melbourne Art Fair into a commercial success, with record sales and luxury partners including Loewe, Piper-Heidsieck and Glenfiddich, and co-founded Melbourne Design Fair with the National Gallery of Victoria.

Earlier, she was founding Event Director of Art Central Hong Kong, working with Swarovski, Absolut and G.H. Mumm, and shaped the commercial strategy of Sydney Contemporary with partners such as Ruinart, Aesop, Rolls-Royce and Net-A-Porter.

In Abu Dhabi, she developed public programmes for the Saadiyat Island Cultural District, working with Agence France-Muséums and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to build future audiences for Louvre Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and was on the launch team for Abu Dhabi Art (now Frieze Abu Dhabi).

The team

Every project gets a team built for the brief, not pulled from a roster.

Between them, they have delivered major international art fairs, record-breaking consumer shows, global convenings and brand launches across Australia, Asia and the Middle East. We are based in Melbourne, with representation in Brisbane, delivering work across Australia and greater Asia.