Esme Ward is Director of Manchester Museum, at the University of Manchester, the first woman in the museum’s 130-year history to hold this role.  

Esme has worked in museums and heritage as an educator and cultural leader for over 25 years, including at the V&A, National Trust, the Whitworth and now, Manchester Museum.  She has also worked across sectors, notably health. She is Professor of Heritage Futures and for several years taught Museology.

She led the £15 million major transformation of Manchester Museum, which reopened in February 2023. She aims to renew the creative and civic purpose of the university museum. She is currently leading work with others to develop practice and policy on repatriation, ecological stewardship and building an ethics of care in museums.

She is Co-Chair of the University Museums Group and sits on the National Museum’s Directors’ Executive Council. She is a member of the Oxford Road Corridor Board and chairs the Culture on the Corridor group.  She sits on the Research England Advisory Group (REAG) and Kew’s Wakehurst Advisory Committee. She is co-founder of the Creative Ageing Development Agency (CADA), founding Chair of the National Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance and a Fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme.