Cultured Peachy: Daniel H. Weiss Appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum Begins Search for Director

The Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Daniel H. Weiss President and Chief Executive Officer of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At a special meeting of its Board, the Trustees voted unanimously that Mr. Weiss will assume the title President and Chief Executive Officer, and also announced that the Museum will lead a search to appoint a Director of the Museum, who will report to Mr. Weiss. The President and CEO will be responsible for the overall leadership of the Museum, and the Director will lead the core mission functions.

At its meeting, the Board concluded that Weiss's background as a distinguished scholar with a doctorate in art history and college president, as well as his outstanding tenure for the past two years as President of The Met, make him an exceptional fit to lead the Museum. The Board's decision follows a comprehensive review of the Museum's organizational structure, roles, and leadership titles, followed by extensive discussions in a series of Executive Committee and Board meetings over the past three months. 

"The Board couldn't be more confident in Dan's ability to take the Museum to even higher levels of excellence," said Daniel Brodsky, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. "He is a scholar of art history, he is a seasoned leader of complex institutions, and he iscommitted to the Museum's mission. His contributions as President of The Met during the past two years have been exemplary, both in supporting the Museum's vision and in establishing a sustainable path for our financial and managerial operations." 

In partnership, Mr. Weiss and the Director will establish the Museum's key institutional, capital, and infrastructure priorities.The Director will be responsible for setting the artistic direction and curatorial priorities of the Museum, including the exhibition and acquisitions programs, conservation and scientific research areas, as well as education and public programming.

The Met is a global leader in scholarly research, and its curators, conservators, educators, and various specialists number in the hundreds and each year generate dozens of world-class exhibitions across The Met's three sites; more than 30,000 educational and public programs; and numerous award-winning publications. The Met also houses a world-renowned complex of scientific research and conservation facilities within its 2 million square foot Fifth Avenue building.

Mr. Weiss, as President and CEO, and the Director will both serve as ex officio Trustees and will provide reports to the Board and Board committees. The Museum will begin the search for the next Director immediately.

"Leading The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an extraordinary honor," said Mr. Weiss. "Our Museum's collections and professional staff set the world standard for exhibitions, scholarship, preservation, education, and public programming, and as thoughtful advocates for the importance of art in our culture. I am equally humbled and excited to continue working closely with the Board and the Museum's unparalleled staff."

Daniel H. Weiss was born in Newark and raised on Long Island. He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Western Medieval and Byzantine Art and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management. He earned his B.A. at George Washington University and an M.A. in art history from Johns Hopkins. After receiving his Ph.D., Weiss joined the art history faculty at Johns Hopkins, and in six years rose to full professor and chair of the department. Three years later Weiss was appointed to the deanship of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins. From 2005 to 2013 he served as President and Professor of Art History at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, and in 2013 he became president of Haverford College.

Mr. Weiss was appointed President of The Met in March 2015. The author or editor of five books and numerous articles, Weiss has published and lectured widely on a variety of topics, including medieval and Byzantine art, the Crusades, higher education, and American culture. He is currently completing a book about the American experience in the era of the Vietnam War. Earlier in his career Weiss spent four years as a management consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton in New York.

Mr. Weiss has been serving as President and interim CEO since February 2017 when Tom Campbell announced that he would be stepping down as Director and CEO of the Museum. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has had both single- and dual-leadership models in the last four decades of its 147-year history. In the single-leadership model, the Director has previously reported to the President, as Philippe de Montebello did upon becoming Director in 1977. More recently the President has reported to the Director and CEO, which began in 1999 when Mr. de Montebello was appointed to assume the role of Director and CEO. The organizational review was conducted for the Board's Executive Committee by Trustees Candace Beinecke and Richard Chilton, Jr., and included a global survey of peer institutions and interviews with dozens of Museum Trustees, staff, and supporters.

The Museum also announced a search committee for the Director. The Committee will be co-chaired by Ms. Beinecke and Mr. Chilton, and its members will include Charles N. Atkins, N. Anthony Coles, Blair Effron, Mark Fisch, Jeffrey W. Greenberg, J. Tomilson Hill, Hamilton E. James, Bonnie J. Sacerdote, Andrew Saul, Lulu C. Wang, and Dasha Zhukova. Mr. Brodsky and Mr. Weiss will be ex officio members of the Committee. In addition, the following Trustees will serve as advisory members: Howard Marks, Samantha Boardman Rosen, Sir Paul Ruddock, and Alejandro Santo Domingo.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of leading citizens of New York "for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said city a Museum and library of art, of encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and, to that end, of furnishing popular instruction."

About The Metropolitan Museum of Art 

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.