Throughout his career, Carlson has been at the forefront of innovation, technology, and museum practice, most recently as the founding Executive Director of The Museum of the Future in Dubai and as the first Executive Director of the Living Computers Museum + Labs here in Seattle.
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Previous to becoming the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at the National Nordic Museum, Lāth as the founding Executive Director of the Museum of The Future in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, He was responsible for the opening of the museum and ensuring that all aspects of MOTF came together to enable guests to learn, explore, and actively participate in building a better future. With tickets sold out since opening In February of 2022, MOTF has welcomed over 1.2 million guests a year from 182 countries, making it one of the most successful new museum ever built.
At the University of New Mexico’s Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Lāth created exhibitions while completing his degree in Cultural Anthropology. From there, his interest in interactive design and engineering led him to becoming an exhibit designer and project manager at the Please Touch Children’s Museum in Philadelphia, as well as the Franklin Institute Science Museum.
Lāth’s experience in the private sector includes 11 years in roles developing interactive and media-based experience for museums and corporate installations of all kinds. He completed innovative projects across North America while at Lynch Exhibits and Art Guild Inc., in New Jersey. He rose to Vice President for Museums and Environments at Art Guild and led the overall operations of the company.
From 2012 to 2015, Lāth held the position of Vice President of Exhibits and Content Development, at The Tech Museum of Innovation in Silicon Valley. Under his leadership The Tech was revitalized under a $60M capital campaign that refreshed the building and replaced all core exhibitions. In 2015, The Tech was awarded the highest honor an American museum can achieve: a National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
Before his directorship at the Museum of the Future, he was a Founding Executive Director of Living Computers: Museum + Labs in Seattle, Washington, a project initiated by Microsoft Co-Founder Paul G. Allen. Within a year of reopening, LCM+L was at the forefront of open access policies and use of artifacts, making it the highest rated museum in Seattle on Google. Carlson led the creation of 12,000 sf of hands-on contemporary technology exhibits, opened four co-created temporary exhibits, and developed numerous community-driven programs.
Lāth has served on the board of the National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME), Future Oriented Museum Synergies (FORMS) and is a Noyce Leadership Institute Fellow. He has lectured in graduate programs at the University of Washington and the University of the Arts, where he occupied a Senior Lecturer post. He has also contributed to three books on museums and was a keynote panelist on Technology at the 2022 International Council of Museums triannual conference in Prague.
As a student he competed in the United States Skills Olympics in Precision Machining, is a former Master’s National Mountain Bike champion, and RYA licensed sailing skipper. Lāth lives on Vashon Island with his wife Liz, a former Team USA Track Cyclist, their two daughters, and Portuguese Water Dog.
