Our Senior Leadership Team

 

Maggie Appleton, MBE, Chief Executive Officer

Maggie has been CEO of the RAF Museum since 2015 and is passionate about the difference museums can make to people’s lives.

Following a history degree from the University of Liverpool and a Masters in Heritage Management from Birmingham University, she has served museums and the wider cultural sector for over 30 years. Following her first role at the Royal Armouries, she pursued her career as a social history curator, museum director and then CEO at Stevenage and Luton.

For Maggie, museum collections have transformative power to support learning, skills development, and to bring communities together. ‘Museums are about communication… they are about sharing people stories; drawing on the past to understand our present and inform our future.’ She believes all museum content and programmes should be underpinned by current thinking and research, and that museums have a responsibility to challenge perceptions and encourage fresh thinking.

A past President of the UK’s Museums Association and previous Co-Chair of the Women Leaders in Museums Network, Maggie is currently a judge for the Museums+Heritage Awards. She is also the National Museum Directors Council’s environmental lead.

Maggie received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Middlesex in 2019 and was appointed a Visiting Professor within the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy at King’s College London in 2024.

She was awarded an MBE for services to museums and heritage in 2012 and, in the same year, included in the Independent on Sunday’s ‘Happy List’, its annual celebration of 100 people who made Britain a better and happier place to live.

Karen Whitting, Director of Content and Programmes

Before joining the RAF Museum team in early 2014, Karen Whitting was working for the Royal Armouries as Head of Creative Programmes. This included leading a diverse project team on behalf of both the Armouries and Historic Royal Palaces to re-display collections in the iconic White Tower at the Tower of London. Her first exhibition at the Royal Armouries was ‘Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill’, in 2009, which celebrated the 500th anniversary of Henry’s accession to the throne. The five year re-development culminated in a new exhibition of the ‘Line of Kings’ – the oldest visitor attraction in the world, first shown to visitors as early as 1652.

Museums are Karen’s second career to date: prior to working in museums Karen worked in the theatre for 15 years in stage, production and company management for repertory companies such as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, opera companies such as Glyndebourne and even spent a year working at the Millennium Dome on a show that involved over 200 performers and technicians.

In her current role Karen is responsible for leading the Public Programmes and Collection teams, working alongside the other senior managers and the Museum’s Trustees to develop and deliver the Museum’s strategic vision and plans. Her focus is on telling the story of the RAF for all the Museum’s audiences, both those who are able to visit its Hendon or Cosford sites and those who might access this story through the Museum’s websites, social media, publications or lectures.

Barry Smith, Director of Visitor and Commercial Development

Barry joined the RAF Museum in January 2018 to lead the development of its commercial, visitor experience and marketing functions. His role is to build the museum’s retail, catering, events and other business functions in order to provide more balance to its funding streams. Prior to joining the museum, Barry held leading commercial roles at the Imperial War Museums and British Library and comes with significant experience of developing commercial business within the cultural sector.