Peter Mullin named chairman of Petersen Automotive Museum

From left, Bruce Meyer, Peter Mullin, and David Sydorick. Photos courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum.

As founder and chairman of the award-winning Mullin Automotive Museum, businessman and car collector Peter Mullin knows a thing or two about running a world-class car museum, which is one reason why the Petersen Automotive Museum declared “a new era” in the museum’s history after tapping Mullin to become its new chairman.

While many automotive enthusiasts may know of Mullin only through the museum that houses his collection of art deco and French automobiles (or for setting a record for highest price paid for a car when he bought a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic for more than $30 million), the rest of his auto-related resume is no less impressive: His 1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2011; he currently serves as president of the American Bugatti Club; and he also serves on the board for the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Nor does Mullin – who replaces Steve Young, who retired at the end of 2012 after five years as chairman – come to the position without big plans. In an interview with The New York Times this week, he said that he intends to transform the Petersen into “one of the great automotive museums in the world.”

“There’s a great opportunity for the Petersen to expand from Southern California car culture into the world of cars as art, cars as freedom and cars as solutions to transportation problems,” he told the Times.

While that sounds like an overly ambitious goal, Mullin will have a couple of heavy hitters backing him as vice-chairmen: collectors and long-time Petersen board members (and Mullin Automotive Museum Foundation board members) David Sydorick and Bruce Meyer. In addition, the museum appointed Terry Karges – a former president of sales and marketing for Roush Performance – as its executive director last August, replacing Buddy Pepp, who retired from the position after two years.

Along with his wife, Margie, Robert Petersen opened the Petersen Automotive Museum to house his impressive collection of cars in 1994 in a former department store on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the museum now not only preserves the Petersen collection and numerous other vehicles added to its collection since then, it also shows the vehicles at events across the country and has developed an educational curriculum surrounding its collection. For more information, visit Petersen.org.