Patriots Point new director ready for success

Mt. Pleasant Town Administrator Mac Burdette is taking over as the new executive director for Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum near Charleston.

The financially struggling historic museum is ready to move forward. And with the 25-year experience Burdette has in transforming the town of Mt. Pleasant, he plans on focusing on opportunities rather than struggles.

I don’t know of any organization that doesn’t have any problems, particularly in these hard economic times. But, let’s look at the exciting part of these things, the opportunities. We’re selling a very marketable commodity for tourists, children and adults alike. It’s called patriotism. We are not sitting on swamp land, we’re sitting on some of the most important piece of property in the United States, certainly South Carolina.

Burdette will take over as director with quite a bit of work on his plate. Recently, Patriots Point borrowed $9 million from the state to repair docked ships. The museum is working on repaying that loan. Also, the landmark is not bringing in enough funding to keep needed repairs up-to-date.

However, with a board set in place, Burdette says he is ready to set sail–so to speak.

We’ve got a great board. That’s one of the first things I looked at when I considered putting my name in the hat. Everybody on this board has been successful in everything that they have done, and that’s where it starts. They’re the policy makers. They’re going to set the direction. The executive director is there to help them do that. We are going to get a couple more board members with the election of the governor, but it’s a great board.

Burdette says despite some recent criticism with funding and land agreements, he sees success in the museum’s future and he’s excited to be a part of it.

There’s no reason this isn’t going to be a success, and when you top it off, we have some of the most important legislators in the state of South Carolina that are very, very interested and committed to Patriots Point.

Burdette was chosen as executive director from 44 other applicants. He will begin work at Patriots Point mid-November.