BOSTON -- The Museum of Science, Boston has elected Lighthouse Capital Partners cofounder and managing director Gwill York chair of its board of trustees. York, 58, is the first woman to lead the Museum's trustees in 50 years and the second in its 185-year-history. She succeeds MEDITECH president Howard Messing, who oversaw completion of the Museum's $284 million capital campaign. York and Richard M. Burnes, Jr., cochaired an effort that created a transformed Charles Hayden Planetarium, world premieres of The Hall of Human Life and The Science Behind Pixar, and the dramatic growth of its National Center for Technological Literacy®.
"We are thrilled Gwill is taking on this pivotal role," says Ioannis Miaoulis, Museum president and director. "We have benefited greatly from her passion for the Museum's mission and her belief in the importance of STEM education. Her philanthropic experience, grasp of finance and Museum operations, and leadership in the scientific and technological communities make her the perfect individual to guide us as we strive to become the leading science center worldwide in expanding the public's access to, understanding of, and critical thinking around engineering, technology, and the sciences."
"I am excited to serve as chair of such an important and vital institution," says York. "Our vision for the next decade is ambitious. Building on the Museum's strengths, we will exponentially broaden our reach through our dynamic offerings of exhibits, programs, design challenges and K-12 engineering and technical curricula. Early next year, capitalizing on our spectacular river location, we will open the Yawkey Gallery on the Charles River, where visitors will actively experience the interplay of the natural and the designed/engineered worlds."
A Museum trustee since 1998 and finance committee chair since 2007, York was an early proponent of a biotechnology exhibit and a generous Hall of Human Life supporter. She began her Museum stewardship in 1990 drawn by its innovative overnight program focusing on girls and science education. Inquisitive and determined, she has successfully started companies and was appointed Entrepreneur in Residence in 2009 at the Harvard Business School. Since 1994, York's firm has committed almost $2 billion in capital to over 500 companies, including Netflix, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, NxStage, and Cascade Communications.
York lives with her husband of 30 years, Paul Maeder, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and says Museum visits sparked their two sons' study of biomedical engineering and neurobiology. A trustee of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and treasurer of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum board of trustees, she also rides in the Pan-Mass Challenge and is a science and history buff.
About the Museum of Science, Boston
One of the world's largest science centers and Boston's most attended cultural institution, the Museum of Science introduces about 1.4 million visitors a year to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) via dynamic programs and hundreds of interactive exhibits. Founded in 1830, the Museum was first to embrace all the sciences under one roof. Highlights include
The Science Behind Pixar, the
Hall of Human Life, Thomson Theater of Electricity,
Charles Hayden Planetarium,
Mugar Omni Theater, Gordon Current Science & Technology Center, 4-D Theater, and
Butterfly Garden. The Museum also leads a 10-year, $41 million National Science Foundation-funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network of science museums. The Museum of Science is the nation's first science center with a comprehensive strategy and infrastructure to foster technological literacy in science museums and schools across the United States. Having reached an estimated 8.3 million students and 90,200 teachers, its NCTL also received the National Science Board's Public Service Award in 2015. Visit:
http://www.mos.org.
