When Jan Skamby Madsen leaves the position as executive director of Moesgaard Museum on December 1, a well-known face at the museum will take over.
The executive committee of the museum has chosen current Head of the Antiquarian Department and professor with special responsibilities, Mads Kähler Holst, as new executive director.
“Moesgaard Museum is at an exciting new crossroads after the opening of the new museum building, the merger with the museums in Odder and on Samsoe and a new partnership with Aarhus University. I look forward to working with the many possibilities and in an environment that I already know to be inventive, committed and dynamic,” says Mads Kähler Holst
Since 2010, he has been part of the management group at Moesgaard Museum and since 2014, he has been partly Head of the Antiquarian Department at Moesgaard Museum and partly professor with special responsibilities at Aarhus University. As Head of the Antiquarian Department, Mads Kähler Holst has been in charge of Moesgaard Museum’s archives and archeological research and collections, and he has had the administrative responsibility of the archeological cultural heritage in the municipalities of Favrskov, Odder, Samsoe and Aarhus as well as maritime archeology in eastern Jutland.
As professor with special responsibilities at Aarhus University, Mads Kähler Holst has managed the ties between the archeology department at Aarhus University and Moesgaard Museum and he has handled the development of the digital infrastructure for cultural heritage on both national and EU levels as well as the development of a collaboration between natural science and archeology.
“In Mads Holst, Moesgaard Museum will get a highly competent executive director with an extensive knowledge of the museum and museum-related issues and with excellent research results and visions for the future development of the museum. Therefore, it is a unanimous committee that has chosen Mads Kähler Holst”, says chairman of the executive committee Johannes Flensted-Jensen.
Mads Kähler Holst is 42-years-old, cand.phil. in prehistoric archeology and Ph.D. from Aarhus University. He takes up the position as executive director of Moesgaard Museum on December 1, 2016.