Bon Voyage and Thank You

At the end of October I passed the baton of leadership of the Alaska SeaLife Center to Dr Tara Riemer Jones, the Chief Operating Officer of the Center for the past 18 months.  Tara was formally appointed interim President and CEO by the ASLC Board after I announced my retirement in September.  I could not be more pleased to see Tara take on this new role as she is of the most outstanding professionals I have had the pleasure to work with - I know that she will do a tremendous job.

As I noted in my speech at the annual staff awards dinner, we have come along way as an organization in the past three years.  We made major gains improving our relationship with such key partners as the State of Alaska, the City of Seward and urban and rural coastal communities throughout Alaska.  We established one of the premier fundraising events on the Anchorage social calendar in the Alaska Marine Gala.  We significantly diversified our funding base and created many new opportunities for more effective partnership with industry.  Our Board diversity and network grew dramatically, and our Board is now more engaged than ever in linking our programs to the many stakeholders in Alaska's oceans. We have a roadmap for organizational development through 2020 (Deep Blue) with much sharper mission focus and tighter integration between science, education and stewardship.  We achieved the gold standard in professional accreditation under the AZA umbrella.  We have also installed some of Alaska's most energy efficient renewable energy systems and made major gains in upgraded building infrastructure such as the newly pigged saltwater intake system.  We have installed world class exhibitry and have firm plans for systematic upgrades to our visitor experience each year.  Membership doubled and our Facebook following went from 0 to more than 5,000!!  All those achievements are more fully described in the 136 blogs preceding this last post...

But all those achievements pale when one considers the amazing staff and volunteer capacity that we developed, maintained and mentored in both Seward and Anchorage during the toughest economic conditions since the great depression.  As most who know me appreciate, I'm a big fan of Peter Drucker whose definition of management is "the art of getting things done with and through people".  Ultimately any non-profit organization depends on people who are committed to the mission.  I could not be more proud of the people who make the SeaLife Center tick each and every day - their depth of character and resilience shine through as they overcome the diverse challenges imposed by our rural Alaskan location.

I am moving on to a new role with the Rasmuson Foundation based in Anchorage.  Going forward, I shall continue to serve on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Center and the Annual Gala Committee.  Please join me in continuing to support North America's northern most aquarium, Alaska's premier non-profit marine research and education organization and the Arctic Coastal Ecosystem and Learning Center... tickets for the 2012 Gala are already on sale at http://www.alaskasealife.org/.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us during these past three years. 

Please note that this blog will now be "on hold" until the new ASLC website is launched in 2012.