The executive director of Dorset Museum will be taking up the driving seat of a new role at the end of the year.

Dr Jon Murden will be leaving the museum after 12 years to take on a new position as the chief executive of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire.

Dr Murden said to staff this morning: "It is with not inconsiderable sadness that I have to tell you all that I will be leaving Dorset Museum in December. I will be joining the National Motor Museum as their new chief executive.

"After everything that we have achieved together at Dorset Museum, this has not been an easy decision to make. However, as many of you will know, both my academic area of expertise and my passion outside of work lies in motoring heritage, so I hope you will appreciate how the opportunity presented to me by the National Motor Museum proved irresistible."

He went on to say: "Together we have made some fantastic achievements possible in our temporary exhibition programming, such as Pharaoh: King of Egypt and Dippy on Tour; with the collections we have managed to save for the county and the nation, like the Dewlish Roman mosaic and the Hardy Players theatre; and the final delivery of the £16.4 million Tomorrow's Museum for Dorset capital project.

"I am, and will always remain, extremely proud of what we, as a team, have managed to create together, achievements that the people of Dorset will be able to enjoy and appreciate long into the future."

Dr Murden joined the museum in 2009 from the National Museums Liverpool. There he had played a key role in the development of the £76 million Museum of Liverpool and the delivery of the city's programme as European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Staff of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, which runs the museum, were told of the news this morning.

Everyone at the society and the Wessex Museums Partnership, which Dorset Museum is a partner along with Salisbury Museum, Poole Museum and Wiltshire Museum, wish Dr Murden all the very best in his new role starting in December.

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