The Natural History Museum of Utah Names Abigail Curran New Chief Operating Officer

April 24, 2018

East coast native Abigail Curran is beginning to settle in as Chief Operating Officer at the Natural History Museum of Utah, a new position within the Museum’s existing management team. Curran earned her MBA with an emphasis in operations from Brigham Young University and since then has garnered diverse experience from global companies Dell EMC, Cummins and Apple.

“We look forward to working with Abby and are encouraged by her enthusiastic attention to detail as well as her desire to work collaboratively with staff and management to enhance the day-to-day workings of the Museum and keep operations running smoothly,” says Museum’s Executive Director, Sarah George.

In her new role as COO, Curran will be wearing several hats as she leads multiple departments in their efforts to ensure quality customer service, train and oversee personnel, generate revenue, implement sales strategies, work with the advisory board and support additional museum-wide goals.

“My hope for operations is for everything to flow seamlessly, to go virtually unnoticed, so the customer experience takes center stage,” says Curran. Prior to joining the Natural History Museum of Utah, Curran assisted team members in their rise to leadership positions at Apple, inspired improved gender diversity goals and strategies at Dell EMC and worked to improve logistic efficiencies at Cummins in the U.S.

Curran grew up in the Washington, DC area, loved spending time at the Smithsonian museums and discovered she will always be a city girl at heart. An avid traveler, both domestic and abroad, she speaks Russian and French and after completing eight marathons has no immediate plans to hang up her running shoes just yet.

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About the Natural History Museum of Utah

The Natural History Museum of Utah at the University of Utah is a premier scientific research and cultural institution. It opened to the public in 1969 and moved into a spectacular, award-winning new home in 2011 at the Rio Tinto Center in Salt Lake City. The Museum’s 30 scientists oversee active field research programs throughout Utah and elsewhere and help care for natural history collections of more 1.6 million objects. The Museum offers innovative exhibitions and educational programs to thousands of residents and visitors each year, including timely and interactive temporary and permanent exhibits, numerous special events and other programs. The Museum reaches 450,000 people annually on-site and in communities and classrooms statewide.