Since 2007, Openhouse Gallery has created and hosted more pop ups than anyone else in New York City. This year we’ve had Audi, Austria, BMW, Burton, Cheeses of France, Heineken, InCase,  Jay-Z + Kanye West, Rocawear, Saucony, The Big Cheesy, The Middle Feast, Park Here and so many more pop ups and events. Meet the personalities behind the New York pop-up space that’s always looking to create unique environments for New Yorkers.

Jonathan Daou is creative director of Openhouse Gallery. He was born in Beirut in 1974 and moved to New York City in 1997, where he started as a residential real estate broker. Daou quickly moved to promotion, selling buildings to developers and specializing in creative retail concepts. Seven years ago, he helped Illy Café set up their pop up on West Broadway and realized pop ups were going to be huge part of the retail landscape. He founded Openhouse Gallery at 201 Mulberry St., in 2007. Jon is a graduate of the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Lebanon, and just had his first baby girl, Arwen Singer Daou. If he could be any animal, it’d be a hawk because they have no natural predators and excellent vision.

Joe LaPadula is Openhouse Gallery’s venue director. In one summer, he ascended from intern to godfather of the space by putting in 90-hour weeks and sleeping on Fatboy beanbag chairs. He was born after 1990 in Manchester, New Hampshire, but has flown out of Logan much more often than Manchester International Airport. Before joining Openhouse, he studied business, marketing and management at University of Arizona and cooked professionally at Poor Boy’s Family Diner in New Hampshire and then as head cook at a University of Arizona bistro. Half-Korean, he also lived in Japan for three years Joe is a certified scuba diver – his favorite drops are in Egypt, Hawaii and Florida – and a rider. He got his first motorcycle recently, a beautifully restored 1974 Kawasaki KZ-400. He uses a touch-screen PC. Out of any animal, he’d be a narwhal because “they have unicorn horns. They are basically the unicorns of the sea.” Contact joe@openhousegallery.org for information about the space, pricing, dates and events.

Greg Spielberg is a community-building journalist and director of content at Openhouse Gallery. He is responsible for everything that involves communication, information and persuasion. Before joining the pop-up space, Greg worked with journalism companies, writing for Bloomberg, Bundle, Businessweek, Harvard’s Nieman Lab for Journalism, Ode magazine and Poets & Quants. His most prized belongings are custom-fit Lange ski boots, KHS Flite road bike and two passports. Greg is half-Belgian and graduated from Bowdoin College and the Missouri School of Journalism master’s program where he focused on community-based models and media economics. He’d definitely be a bear because they are friendly omnivores, snatch salmon out of rivers and disappear into the woods when they like. Find Greg on Twitter. Contact greg@openhousegallery.org or 207.522.6715.