Chief Operating Officer Salem, Massachusetts

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) celebrates outstanding artistic and cultural creativity by collecting, stewarding, and interpreting objects of art and culture in ways that increase knowledge, enrich the spirit, engage the mind, and stimulate the senses. Through its exhibitions, programs, publications, media, and related activities, the museum strives to create experiences that transform people's lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes, and knowledge of themselves and the wider world. As PEM enters the next era of its storied history following an unparalleled 25-year arc of development, the museum seeks an experienced and highly motivated leader to serve as its chief operating officer (COO).

More than two centuries since its inception, PEM faces a distinct set of opportunities and challenges. In the wake of an international health crisis and systemic racial injustice that is experienced acutely by many and cannot be ignored, museum leaders have been called to action. This period will require expansive thinking and both global and local efforts as PEM examines its role as an inclusive, accessible, and thought- provoking leader in an evolving museum landscape and society.

In July 2019, PEM appointed a new director and CEO for the first time in 25 years. A bold and visionary leader, Dr. Brian Kennedy has already laid the groundwork for an ambitious five-year strategic plan that will reevaluate the museum’s approach to and engagement of its audience, staff, physical and digital space, and financial resources. The COO will partner closely with Dr. Kennedy to realize the short- and long-term success of this vision. Broadly, this individual will function as the senior advisor and strategic partner to the director and share responsibility for the general operations of the museum.

Located in the coastal city of Salem, Massachusetts, 15 miles north of Boston, PEM was founded in 1799 by many of America’s first global entrepreneurs and is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States. It was dedicated to collecting and presenting wondrous objects and works of contemporary art and culture from beyond the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn to the citizens of a young nation. Today the museum maintains its global and entrepreneurial roots while celebrating its important ties to the City of Salem and surrounding Essex County. Peabody Essex Museum Chief Operating Officer Page 2 of 8

PEM is among the fastest growing art museums in the United States over the past quarter of a century. The museum now ranks among the top ten percent of American art museums as measured by budget size, at $30 million; facilities, at more than 500,000 square feet; and endowment, valued at $510 million. The museum operates on a global stage and enjoys an international reputation for creativity and innovation in exhibition, interpretation, publications, financial and strategic management, public programs, and education. PEM routinely partners with other top-tier art museums world-wide, such as the National Gallery, Victoria and Albert, Rijksmuseum, Palace Museum at the Forbidden City, and many others, to create groundbreaking exhibitions. The PEM team includes approximately 202 staff, including 29 in curatorial, 23 in education and civic engagement, 28 under the CFO umbrella, 14 in philanthropy, 53 in facilities and security, 21 in marketing, 31 in collections, and three in the executive office.

This position presents a rare opportunity to join a museum that is recognized as a pathbreaker and leader at a key inflection point. PEM’s COO will support and complement a visionary director early in his tenure and will assume leadership of a highly dynamic institution. Working in close partnership with executive leaders; a committed board of directors; and curatorial, program, and operations staff, the next COO will build the infrastructure to support strategic priorities that will continue the museum’s remarkable upward trajectory. The COO will bring to life a vision that allows PEM to retain its global reputation and base of loyal supporters, while addressing existing barriers to access and the need for increased diversity and racial equity across the museum’s audience, staff, and volunteer leadership. As PEM continues to expand its global footprint, the COO will also lead the operation and development of its two parallel campuses: its two physical locations, in Salem and the state-of-the-art 120,000-square-foot Collection Center in Rowley, Massachusetts, as well as its burgeoning digital campus. In addition, the COO will work closely with the American Alliance of Museums to lead PEM’s successful completion of its upcoming reaccreditation process. An eight- to 16-month process, the review centers on self-study and peer review and takes place every 15 years.

The successful candidate will lead strategic and tactical planning, priority setting, and decision making across the museum and directly oversee such functional areas as employee experience/human resources; marketing and communications; and security, facilities operations, and planning; with additional oversight of collection services, digitization and documentation, and earned revenue operations. This individual must demonstrate an inclusive leadership style and a deep appreciation for the arts while simultaneously recognizing and articulating the critical role all museum staff play, including frontline service and operational professionals of all levels. The Peabody Essex Museum is especially committed to recruiting candidates from historically marginalized or underrepresented backgrounds and identities, as well as individuals who embrace the values and practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their leadership.

The ideal candidate will have more than 15 years of senior management experience with a demonstrated understanding of the operational challenges facing non-profit institutions. The COO will have superb written and oral presentation, negotiation, and communication skills; and a demonstrated ability to inspire confidence and lead staff with honesty and integrity through a period of transformation and growth. The successful candidate will have shown an ongoing interest in new technologies, computerization and innovation.

The Peabody Essex Museum has retained the Boston-based international executive search firm Isaacson, Miller to conduct this search, with Jack Gorman leading the search team. Confidential nominations, inquiries, and applications may be directed to the search firm as indicated at the end of this document. Peabody Essex Museum Chief Operating Officer Page 3 of 8

A DISTINCTIVE ART MUSEUM – A MUSEUM OF ART AND CULTURE

The Peabody Essex Museum’s mission is to create experiences of art, culture, and creative expression that transform people’s lives by changing the way they see themselves and the world. By presenting art and culture in new ways, by linking past and present, and by embracing artistic and cultural achievements worldwide, the museum offers unique opportunities to explore a multilayered and interconnected world of creative expression.

PEM’s collections include contemporary and historical art from China, Japan, Korea, India, and Bhutan; American and American decorative art; Native American art; Maritime art; Asian export art; Oceanic and African art; Fashion, Textiles, and Costumes; Photography; 17th through 19th century American architecture; and a major research library. Many of PEM’s collections are among the finest of their kind. PEM’s campus features a number of parks and gardens, 22 historic structures including four National Landmark and five National Register buildings, and the Phillips Library, one of the nation's most important museum-based collections of rare books, including 400,000 volumes and a linear mile of manuscripts and related materials.

In addition to its vast collections, the Peabody Essex presents a vibrant schedule of special exhibitions organized by its own team as well as exhibitions organized by leading museums in North America, Europe, and Asia. PEM is the only art museum in the world that employs a full-time neuroscientist who helps tap new knowledge drawn from neurosciences to help design compelling art experiences. The museum has consistently earned the highest visitor satisfaction ratings among more than 80 major American museums of all kinds, including many major art museums, as determined by an outside party. PEM receives some 270,000 visitors annually and is recognized as an important regional economic engine.

The museum’s approach to its mission moves beyond silo thinking and operations, instead favoring crisp execution in partnership among its various leaders and departments. Great emphasis is placed on close collaboration between the curatorial, education, philanthropy, finance, and marketing teams. Across the enterprise, the common thread in PEM’s approach is entrepreneurial innovation, from retooling the museum business model to enable steady endowment support, to drawing on lessons from neuroscience to make museum experiences more engaging.

The PEM Trajectory

The Peabody Essex Museum’s arc of development over the past 25 years is unprecedented among American museums. In 1992, the Peabody Museum of Salem merged with the Essex Institute to form the Peabody Essex Museum, then a small museum located outside a major urban center with virtually no standing as an art museum. Over a decade ago, the Peabody Essex began a comprehensive campaign to conceptually and physically integrate, interpret, and exhibit the full breadth of museum collections for the first time in its more than 200-year history. The museum also set out to enrich and enhance all its programs. During the last several years, PEM has ranked among the top museums in the nation for collection acquisitions through purchase and gift.

The institution's transformation resulted in the creation of a new and major museum, serving people in Salem, Greater Boston, New England, the nation, and the world. At the June 2003 opening of the museum’s new wing, designed by Moshe Safdie, PEM’s facilities vaulted into the top ranks of larger national art museums. Its suite of galleries dedicated to changing exhibitions is among the largest on the Peabody Essex Museum Chief Operating Officer Page 4 of 8

East Coast. The Peabody Essex routinely partners with first-tier art museums worldwide to create groundbreaking exhibitions, publications, and programs—among them the National Gallery in Washington, DC, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Palace Museum at the Forbidden City, the Freer|Sackler at the Smithsonian, and the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands—that are positively reviewed by major media including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Financial Times, Newsweek, and many others.

PEM’s accomplishments over the past quarter of a century are too numerous to describe in detail but include the following: ● Increased operating budget from $3 million to $30 million ● Increased endowment from $23 million to over $500 million ● Created a new financial model for American art museums that has received national attention from the Wall Street Journal and other publications for its foresight and creativity, and yields more than twice the average percentage of endowment support for annual operations than that at nearly all other American art museums ● Created a changing exhibition program that routinely presents groundbreaking exhibitions spanning the entire spectrum of global artistic expression and serves up to a million people annually through presentation of PEM exhibitions at first-tier art museums worldwide ● Achieved and maintained the highest visitor satisfaction ratings among more than 80 major museums nationwide since 2003 ● Increased annual on-site attendance from 60,000 to up to more than 270,000 ● Creation of new education and public programs serving tens of thousands of families, children, and adults each year ● Established innovative methods of presenting and interpreting art, including the first application of neuroscience to the design of art experiences and the first appointment of a full-time neuroscientist at an art museum ● Acquired art valued at more than $100 million through purchase and donations ● Established contemporary art as a core part of PEM’s exhibitions and programs ● Raised more than $800 million in two campaigns to advance PEM and carry out its mission ● Designed and constructed more than 270,000 square feet of new facilities and preserved and restored tens of thousands of square feet of existing facilities ● Provide $100 million annual economic benefit to Salem and the region

A unique combination of factors coalesced to make PEM’s unique growth and transformation possible. First among these is the commitment to create transformative experiences of art, culture, and creative expression as a means of materially enhancing and enriching people’s lives. The Peabody Essex Museum is characterized by a highly unusual willingness to take calculated risks and to live with constant change, as well as an uncommon willingness to adopt exceedingly ambitious goals. Finally, exceptional board and staff leadership and teamwork, combined with remarkable venture philanthropy, have been critical to the museum’s growth and success.

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MUSEUM LEADERSHIP

Brian Kennedy, The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO

Brian Kennedy became the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in July of 2019. Born in Dublin, Dr. Kennedy has held senior leadership positions at art museums around the world, including posts in Ireland, Australia, and the United States. He joined PEM following a nine-year tenure as the president, director, and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art where he oversaw one of America’s great art collections and strengthened the museum through significant acquisitions, creative programming, and a holistic strategic plan to more deeply integrate the museum into the community.

Dr. Kennedy has an abiding interest in perception and visual literacy and is deeply committed to arts education. At PEM, he works to uphold the museum’s legacy, advance its mission, further its impact, and ensure that relevant, invigorating museum experiences continue to connect us to one another.

A strategic thinker and collaborative leader, Dr. Kennedy is a respected art historian, curator, and author. He studied art history and history at University College Dublin, earning bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, and has written six books, most recently on the artists Sean Scully and Frank Stella.

Prior to coming to the United States, Dr. Kennedy spent eight years as assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (1989-1997) and seven years as director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra (1997-2004). Stateside, he has been the director of Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (2005-2010) and president, director, and CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art (2010-2019).

Dr. Kennedy is a past chair of the Irish Association of Art Historians (1996-1997) and of the Council of Australian Art Museum Directors (2001-2003). He was a trustee and treasurer of the Association of Art Museum Directors (2013-2016) and is a peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums and a member of the International Association of Art Critics.

For more information about PEM, please visit www.pem.org.

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

The COO will report directly to the museum director as a key member of his senior leadership team and will ensure that the quality and effectiveness of museum-wide systems, policies, and procedures exceed industry standards of excellence. This individual will articulate and advance organizational goals internally and in the broader range of external constituencies and will serve as an effective spokesperson for the objectives and ambitions of the museum. The COO will navigate a changing social, educational, and technological climate, and will best position PEM to respond to the evolving role of museums and the need to become more porous and accessible for diverse populations. They will have interest in engaging visual and multisensory literacy as a holistic means of social and civic engagement. The ideal candidate will be a leader who promotes integration and coordination across various functional areas and further coalesces, fully mobilizes, and inspires the team.

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Following are the broad responsibilities and objectives of this role:

Strategic Leadership and Oversight

● Serve as a senior advisor and work closely with the director to ensure that organizational priorities are transparently articulated and executed to internal and external stakeholders; assist the director with monitoring and measuring the achievements of the director’s senior management team and all functional areas in support of the overall goals of the museum.

● Lead and serve as a thought partner to curatorial and programmatic senior leadership to establish strategic plans and objectives; ensure the overall monitoring and success of assigned functions and integration of these activities with those of other major organizational segments.

● In coordination with the director, play a lead role in guiding PEM’s long-term financial sustainability; interface closely with key partners such as the chief financial officer and chief philanthropy officer around budget oversight, cost optimization, enterprise risk management and revenue generation.

● Serve as a key institutional liaison in support of PEM’s board of directors; provide executive-level support to board committees, working groups, and task forces; partner closely with the director and board leadership around the diversification of the board and the onboarding and pipeline building of new members.

● Oversee and execute the successful completion of PEM’s upcoming reaccreditation process through the American Alliance of Museums; convene and organize all key stakeholders who will play a role in the process.

Employee Experience

● In collaboration with the director of human resources, ensure that HR strategy is aligned with organizational goals and promotes standards of excellence in management practice.

● Build, maintain, and improve a best-in-class employee experience program, focused on performance excellence, professional ethics and respect, a more diverse workforce, and continuous improvement and growth among PEM staff of all levels and stations.

● Further develop and implement PEM’s strategic plan around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); identify ambitious goals, practices, and measurable outcomes of success in the museum’s internal DEI work; serve as a visible, vocal, and trusted internal leader around DEI.

● Collaborate with colleagues and partners to design programs that foster cultural competence, ensure a welcoming environment for all potential and current employees, and promote accountability and transparency across various efforts, teams, and initiatives.

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Physical Space

● In collaboration with the chief of security, facilities operations, and planning, oversee the effective day-to-day operation and preservation of all PEM buildings and grounds and all security operations, including risk management, emergency preparedness, and the safety and security of the collections, visitors, and premises.

● Oversee the creation of a campus and facilities master plan, as well as the planning, budgeting, scheduling, and implementation of all capital projects.

Audience, Community, and Digital Space

● Guide and implement high-level strategy in support of PEM’s social value and role in the surrounding community; convene key stakeholders across the museum around efforts to emphasize local communities and address inequality, inequity, issues of privilege, deficits in the educational system, and existing barriers to museum access.

● Serve as an effective museum spokesperson and representative who is seen as accessible and approachable by the surrounding Salem and Essex County community; partner closely with the newly appointed director of education and civic engagement around PEM’s leadership and participation in civic engagement opportunities and regional events.

● In collaboration with the chief marketing officer, create a robust and broad-based institutional marketing and communications plan that engages more diverse audiences while retaining the museum’s loyal visitor and membership base; guide state-of-the-art digital strategy and other interactive media platform to expand PEM’s digital engagement and global reach to broad, untapped audiences.

● In partnership with the chief of collection services and library director, devise and implement strategies to ensure the accessibility and utility of PEM’s collections to expanded audiences, both physically and digitally.

● Serve as a thought partner for all functional area leaders around technological innovations in their various departments; guide the digitalization and documentation of key museum activities, such as fundraising, and collection access in an increasingly virtual world.

The chief operating officer will bring many of the following professional qualities and experiences:

● A deep and enthusiastic understanding of, and commitment to, PEM’s mission; a recognition of the central importance of innovation and inclusion to the future success of the museum.

● Demonstrated inspirational and accessible leadership, internally and externally; a genuine enthusiasm and ability to serve as a visible and compelling advocate for and embodiment of PEM to a variety of audiences and to engage all members of the community.

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● A proven record of strategic and effective leadership and administrative management in a complex environment with confidence and diplomacy.

● Experience leading and working collaboratively with cross-disciplinary teams, including curators, educators, interpreters, exhibition designers, executive leaders, and other staff, helping all to achieve productive, meaningful outcomes in their work.

● A genuine commitment to learning about the many cultures of the world and the local region, and the role of art in broadening our perspectives, attitudes, and knowledge of ourselves and the wider world.

● Experience with community-building and civic engagement in support of proactive and constructive interaction with diverse local, national, and global communities.

● Expert interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence to effectively lead, motivate, and influence others, as well as guide staff through ongoing changes in organization, processes, procedures, and technologies.

● Experience working with and engaging diverse staff and the ability to foster an environment that welcomes and respects people from all backgrounds.

● Effectiveness as a change agent, with the ability to think strategically and translate ideas into action; a calculated risk-taker comfortable working with ambiguity.

● A collaborative, inclusive, transparent, and good-humored leadership style with a willingness to consult and listen; the highest standards of ethics and integrity.

● A self-assured problem solver who can anticipate challenges and obstacles and has the intelligence, creativity, and tenacity to provide and execute strategic and effective solutions. ● Imagination, optimism, service orientation, and a high level of energy.

● Bachelor’s degree preferred; work and life experience taken into consideration.

TO APPLY

This search is being led by Jack Gorman of Isaacson, Miller with Grace Zakim and Jocelyn Wickersham. For more information, to make a nomination, or to apply for this role, please visit:

www.imsearch.com/7605

The Peabody Essex Museum has a strong institutional commitment to diversity and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply.