Sajet (Smithsonian/Wendy Concannon)

The Smithsonian Institution announced today that Kim Sajet, the president and chief executive of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, will take over as director of the National Portrait Gallery. Sajet will start the job on April 1, taking over from Wendy Wick Reaves, who had been serving as interim director since the last permanent director, Martin Sullivan, left in June 2012.

In her new position, Sajet will oversee a museum with 65 full-time employees, a collection of more than 21,000 works, and a $9 million annual budget. In a press release, Secretary of the Smithsonian G. Wayne Clough lauded the Portrait Gallery’s new director. “Kim is a solid manager who blends extensive art expertise with business and fundraising acumen,” he said.

As head of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Sajet has been a formidable fundraiser, collecting more than $15 million over the past six years to finance capital projects, exhibits, and acquisitions. She has also been a fundraiser for the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she led a $68 million purchase of Thomas Eakins’ 1875 painting “The Gross Clinic.”

Sajet also arrives at the Smithsonian with quite the globe-trotting background. Born in Nigeria, she was raised and educated in Australia and at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and is a citizen of the Netherlands.

“The National Portrait Gallery has a unique role to play in recognizing the extraordinary people who have shaped America’s identity while inspiring the next generation to recognize that they have within them all the ingredients to become leaders in their own right,” Sajet said in the Smithsonian’s press release.