Welcome to our new President and CEO!
In this interview with our new President and CEO, Cindy Diehl Yang, we sat down to ask the important questions, now that she’s settled into her new role here at the Putnam Museum and Science Center. You can watch the video here.
Getting To Know Our New CEO
What is your favorite exhibit?
“So far, my favorite exhibit has been the Innovator’s Gallery. Mostly because I’m not from the Quad Cities – and so every time I go in there, with one of the tours happening, somebody else tells me something that’s cool, that was invented in the Quad Cities. So, that’s been a huge amount of fun. I will say, I’m particularly fond of the washing machine because a son built it for his mom – Best Child Award, right there!”
What is your favorite snack at concessions?
“I have a couple of favorite snacks, so I can’t pick just one! A couple of the people downstairs talked me into trying the watermelon slushie – you should definitely try it – it’s like a Jolly Rancher Watermelon candy, and it is so good. And, I’m kind of a “3 o’clock M&M” fan – you know, it gets to be 3 o’clock and there’s got to be some chocolate – they have M&M’s, so, those would be my two biggest favorites.
Have you had a chance to see a movie?
“I haven’t had a chance to watch any of them yet. There is one that is in the rotations, that hasn’t come up yet but everyone keeps talking about, which is Superpower Dogs. So, I’m waiting for it to come back in the rotations so I can dip out to watch that one.”
What is your favorite part of your job?
“I just love my job, like I really do love my job. I like the fact that I’ve been meeting a huge amount of people in the community. I love how people love The Putnam – I say, ‘oh, I work with The Putnam,’ and they’re like, ‘I love The Putnam!’ So that’s always a great thing, you know. I think…building the connections. Building the connections internally, with the community – being able to build the connections with the past that we see in the exhibits. It’s just all that relationship building, it has been such a great, great part of what I do.”
What upcoming things are you excited for?
“It’s been really exciting – I can’t believe I’ve been here for 90 days, I’m really excited for the next 90 days. We’re just breaking ground on construction where we’ll be creating a vault of our collection that’s open for the public to see. And we’re so excited to have that under development and being able to put the great treasures we have on display for the public. We have over 250,000 items in the collection, with roughly 3 to 4% on display at any given time, and this will help up that, and also to be able to see more of the collection behind those that are pulled out on display. So, I’m pretty excited to be able to take part in seeing how that transforms and how it becomes something that the community can enjoy and appreciate on a regular basis.”
Thank you again to Cindy for sitting down with us! We’re looking forward to a new era of leadership at the Putnam Museum and Science, and so excited to have you on board.
