• Sara Wajid MBE joined Birmingham Museums Trust in 2020

• Birmingham Museums Trust is an independent charity which runs the largest civic museum service in England

• The National Museum Directors' Council represents the leaders of the UK's national collections and major regional museums.

The co-chief executive of Birmingham Museums Trust, Sara Wajid MBE, has been appointed to the National Museum Directors' Council's executive committee, marking a significant recognition of her leadership in Birmingham and in the wider museum sector.

Sara Wajid joined Birmingham Museums Trust from the Museum of London in November 2020 alongside her co-chief executive Zak Mensah.

Birmingham Museums Trust is an independent charity which runs the largest civic museum service in England. It cares for over one million objects and nine museums in Birmingham, including Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum. Its internationally important collections include the world’s greatest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and material relating to Boulton and Watt, whose radically improved steam engine drove the global Industrial Revolution.

The National Museum Directors' Council (NMDC) represents the leaders of the UK's national collections and major regional museums. It is an independent, non-governmental organisation founded in 1929, in anticipation of a Royal Commission recommendation that the national collections should ‘coordinate their work and discuss matters of mutual concern'.

Today the NMDC provides its membership with a valuable forum for discussion and debate and an opportunity to share information and work collaboratively.

The executive committee is a key leadership group within the council, responsible for making strategic decisions and overseeing the council's activities.

Wajid will sit on the committee for the next three years representing both Birmingham Museums Trust and the English Civic Museums Network, a group of senior museum professionals representing over 40 museum organisations, formed in 2015 to develop a strategic response to the crisis in public funding affecting the sector.

Her appointment highlights her leadership skills and experience in the museum sector and her commitment to inclusive and relevant museum practices.

Speaking of her appointment, Sara said:

“Museums are a core part of our national infrastructure and, despite crisis induced by decades of austerity cuts, have huge potential to contribute to the cultural, social, economic and democratic renewal of our society.

“At a time of dramatic polarisation and geopolitical chaos, museums can be creative spaces where we seek to understand the past in order to help our search for a richer, more just and human future.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity as a member of the National Museum Directors’ Council, to work with colleagues to realise more of this potential.”