Cheryll Sotheran

Dame Cheryll Beatrice Sotheran (1945 – 30 December 2017) was a New Zealand museum professional. She was the founding Chief Executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and was thanked with the successful completion of the museum, considered the largest international museum project of the 1990s. She was born in Stratford, New Zealand.
In the 1999 New Year Honours Sotheran was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to museum administration. Sotheran resigned from Te Papa for health reasons in 2002.
In 2013, Sotheran suffered a stroke. She died in Auckland on 30 December 2017 from an unknown long-illness and stroke-related complications, aged 72.