Job Description

President & Chief Executive Officer

The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) seeks an innovative, engaged, and forward-thinking leader who is passionate about the role of a dynamic museum in a thriving community to serve as its next President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The Museum has become a model museum, serving as a community hub for education and engagement with history, science, and culture, past, present, and future.

The Chief Executive Officer is the Museum’s senior leadership position and reports to the GRPM Foundation Board of Trustees and the Board of Art and Museum Commissioners. The CEO has executive oversight authority and responsibility for all Museum operations, staff, finances, and community relations.

The next President and CEO will embrace the mission of the Museum and its ability to provide an entertaining and educational experience to students and members of the public, building on the Museum’s successful educational approach and striving to enhance it through programmatic planning. The new CEO will embrace the unique capacity of the Museum to use its collection for the betterment of the Grand Rapids community and will seek out additional partnerships and opportunities to expand on this mission. As a relationship builder and leader, the new CEO will embody the Museum’s values and communicate its vision, mission, and strategic goals to partners in order to grow and expand into the future. As the Museum’s chief executive fundraiser and leading community advocate, the next CEO will work to sustain current partnerships and grow new ones.

The GRPM is the oldest and second-largest museum in Michigan. It was created under the city charter in 1854, just four years after the City of Grand Rapids was established. The Museum traces its roots to the 1868 merger of the Grand Rapids Lyceum of Natural History and the Grand Rapids Scientific Club, which became the Kent Scientific Institute and later evolved into the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Today, the Museum and Collections occupy more than 226,000 square feet and house over 250,000 artifacts and specimens that tell the stories of Grand Rapids, West Michigan, and beyond, as well as the 55-acre historic Indian Mounds site. It was the first museum in the nation to be accredited (1971) and was most recently re-accredited in 2024.

The salary range for this position is $275-290K. A complete Leadership Profile with additional information may be found here: https://www.agbsearch.com/searches/president-chief-executive-officer-grand-rapids-public-museum

Nominations and Applications

Review of applications for the GRPM President and CEO will begin immediately and continue until an appointment is made. To ensure full consideration, applications should be received by September 4, 2026, and must include:

• A letter of interest addressing the priorities and expectations for leadership identified in the profile;
• A current curriculum vitae; and
• The contact information (email and phone) for five professional references, including their relationship to the candidate. References will be contacted at a later stage in the search, and only with the candidate’s permission.

The Grand Rapids Public Museum is being assisted by AGB Search. Application materials should be submitted through the AGB Search portal system here: https://bit.ly/4eqlC3F

Please direct nominations and expressions of interest or any questions regarding the application process to: GRPMCEO@agbsearch.comor to one of the AGB consultants listed below:

Andrew Bowen, MA, Executive Search Consultant

andrew.bowen@agbsearch.com

Nancy Targett, Ph.D., Executive Search Consultant

Nancy.targett@agbsearch.com

Lynn DellaPietra, Ph.D., Executive Search Associate

lynn.dellapietra@agbsearch.com

The Grand Rapids Public Museum is an equal-opportunity employer. It is the Public Museum’s policy to provide equal employment opportunities at all times without regard to age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, language differences, nationality, parental status, physical, mental and developmental abilities, race, religion, sexual orientation, skin color, socioeconomic status, and any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Each employee is responsible for assisting the Public Museum in maintaining a climate that provides equal employment opportunities for all employees.

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