The American Museum & Gardens has announced that Gareth Thomas has been appointed as Executive Chair, on a part-time basis, following Richard Wendorf’s retirement at the end of 2021.
Gareth has a strong track record of leading successful teams, having been Retail Director at John Lewis for ten years and leading that business’s performance through a significant turnaround up to 2010. He was also a Trustee and Deputy Chair at Save the Children, a Trustee and Chair of various committees and councils at TATE, and a Non-Executive Director of several other commercial companies, including the Co-op Group. He has been a Trustee of the American Museum since 2013 and Chair of the Board of Trustees since April 2019. Gareth lives in Bath with his wife and young family.
Richard Wendorf has agreed to continue his relationship with the Museum in a consultancy role, working as an ambassador on the Museum’s behalf, raising funds for the Museum among American supporters, beginning an endowment campaign, and providing continuity for the travel programme and other activities.
Meanwhile, it looks as if the museum’s first venture into a Christmas lights trail in the gardens has been a success.
Speaking for the museum, marketing and communications manager Amelia Christmas told me: ‘We welcomed 21 thousand visitors over the 18 evenings, which was phenomenal for the Museum.
A significant number of the visitors were new audiences, not having visited us before. We very much intend this to become an annual event for Bath, and will be further developing aspects of the event for 2022, as part of our exciting upcoming programme. ‘
