Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer

We are pleased to announce that the National Nordic Museum has selected Lath Carlson to serve as the next Executive Director and CEO, effective September 1, 2024. 

Over the past 12 years, Carlson has played a pivotal role at unique and innovative museums. In partnership with the local government of Dubai and the Dubai Future Foundation, Carlson established The Museum of the Future, one of the world’s most innovative new museums. As the founding Executive Director, Carlson oversaw the completion of the now iconic building and achieved LEED Platinum certification for new building construction. He led the creation of 60,000 sf of exhibits, all technology systems, bespoke retail collections, and multiple food and beverage outlets. Since opening in 2022, the museum has been continuously sold out with over 100,000 paid monthly guests and is financially self-sufficient, making it one of the most successful new museums ever built.

Before his directorship at the Museum of the Future, Carlson was recruited by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen to assume the role of the first Executive Director of the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle. Carlson took Allen’s personal collection of vintage computers and turned it into a vibrant and inclusive museum. From 2012 to 2015, Carlson held the position of Vice President of Exhibits and Content Development at The Tech Museum of Innovation in Silicon Valley. He re-envisioned the Tech’s core institutional mission by implementing building-wide renovations, replacing all exhibits, and investing in programming within a $60M capital campaign. In 2015, The Tech was awarded the highest honor an American museum can achieve: a National Medal for Museum and Library Service.

You can read the full press release here. 

Ben Tobin and Sheryl Ash led this search with Aku Ammah-Tagoe and Alaine Small.