Home > Aquarium coverage > Fish Tank > Archives > 2005 > November > 13
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Job second nature to aquarium’s new chief
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It might have been the sight of a cow udder — not a fish — that eventually landed Jeff Swanagan at the helm of the world’s largest aquarium.
Swanagan, executive director of the soon-to-open Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta, grew up on a 30-acre Ohio farm near the banks of Lake Erie, where he spent leisurely hours exploring the countryside with his dog. When he was 11, he went to work on a neighboring dairy farm.
“My first job was the worst job I’ll ever, ever have,” he said. “I had to shave the udders of milk cows. I’m like 11 years old and thinking, ‘I’m going to get my head kicked in.’ I said to myself, ‘There’s got to be better work than this.’ “
John Spink/AJC
Jeff Swanagan is credited with the financial turnaround of the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.Four decades and a couple of science degrees later, the 48-year-old former farm boy is about to open the doors to the planet’s biggest fish tank amid some major-league hoopla. Media from around the globe plan to cover the event — NBC’s “Today Show” will broadcast from the aquarium Nov. 21, the first day it opens to annual pass-holders.
Swanagan was handpicked four years ago by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who is spending more than $200 million of his home-improvement fortune to build the aquarium. Swanagan, who was paid $278,000 in 2004, will oversee a staff of 220 full-time employees, 120 part-time workers and hundreds of volunteers.
Neither Marcus nor Swanagan will talk about specific budget figures, but based on aquariums of similar size, it could take more than $40 million a year to run the facility, which is set up as a nonprofit. Thanks to Marcus and several major corporations that have sponsored exhibits, the facility will open debt-free. Money from ticket sales, ballroom rentals and retail sales will be used to cover its operating costs.
It is a high-profile job for a guy who grew up in Footville, Ohio, and likes to spend his spare time reading novels by Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind.
“I’m a science-fiction geek. I’ve read every book they’ve ever written,” he said. “I’m so disappointed they can’t write these books faster. I reread their old books before the next one comes out.”
He freely admits his discomfort with schmoozing, even though he is about to get an overdose.
“You play the role of director and you’re always on,” he said. “You can’t go anywhere where you are not the director of the aquarium. I’m very comfortable playing that role. But as just Jeff, I’m a very quiet, shy person. If someone invites me to a party, oh my gosh, I’m a wallflower. I can’t stand it.”
The divorced father of five rarely watches television in his high-rise downtown Atlanta condo overlooking the aquarium, but when he does, he gravitates toward animal documentaries.
“I just love ‘Shark Week,’ ” he said, alluding to the popular show on the Discovery Channel.
Swanagan’s first encounter with the Georgia Aquarium came when he was still director of the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, where he had been since 1998. Before that, he had worked at Zoo Atlanta from 1987 until 1998, beginning as director of education and later serving as deputy zoo director under longtime head Terry Maple.
He was widely credited in the industry with rescuing the Florida fish tank from financial ruin.
lze Berzins, the Florida Aquarium’s vice president of biological operations, said Swanagan took over the facility when it was running deeply in the red. He put it on sound footing, and it has continued to operate in the black after his departure.
Staffers credit Swanagan with reconnecting the aquarium with the community, and reaching out to children and seniors. He was instrumental in expanding the “Explore a Shore” exhibit, which still draws throngs of children to the aquarium.
“We’ve now become one of the success stories, and a lot of that was because of Jeff’s input,” Berzins said. “He was a calming force that got everybody back on track to be supportive of this institution.”
Swanagan downplays his role in the Tampa turnaround, but it burnished his reputation in the business and brought him to the attention of Marcus.
“I looked at it and figured that I wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to make it worse,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is my opportunity.’ “
When Marcus and Swanagan first met for lunch in April 2000, Swanagan had no idea who Marcus was. He soon found out that the outgoing billionaire was intent on using a sizable chunk of his bank account to build an aquarium like no other. And he wanted to pick Swanagan’s brain.
“I really didn’t think he was all that serious about it at first,” Swanagan said. “He would just sit there and take in everything I said. I told him initially about everything I knew about how aquariums were designed wrong.”
By November 2001, Swanagan was on Marcus’ payroll, and the two began a no-ideas-barred quest to do it right. They started with a frenzied tour of the world’s best aquariums, visiting more than 50 fish tanks in more than a dozen countries over the next 18 months.
The two men seem like studies in contrast. The gregarious Marcus thrives in the spotlight — he has never met a room full of people he didn’t like. Give him a microphone and you’ll get a 10-minute speech sprinkled with a half-dozen jokes. Swanagan appears happiest offstage, smiling supportively in the shadows.
“There’s been a lot of skill sets we’ve learned together,” said the 76-year-old Marcus. “He’s taught me a lot about the fish world. And I think I’ve given him some of my business acumen. Together, we’ve had a pretty good partnership. I think he’s the guy who can carry this aquarium to the next level.”
In Japan, they visited seven aquariums in six days, an experience that would have a profound impact on the Georgia Aquarium’s final form. Dual wall tanks of blue runners that guide visitors into the aquarium’s atrium are based on a small exhibit they saw on the trip. And it was in Japan where Marcus first looked into the face of the planet’s biggest fish.
“When Bernie saw the whale sharks, you could just see it in him,” Swanagan said. “You knew there was no turning back.”
Eventually, the aquarium was designed around the 6.2 million-gallon tank that is home to Ralph and Norton, the two whale sharks from Taiwan that are the icons of the Georgia Aquarium. It is the only aquarium outside Asia to display the gentle giants, which can grow to the size of a boxcar.
Swanagan’s current job duties include everything from motivating staff to dealing with federal agencies. On weekends, he often straps on scuba gear and dives into the aquarium’s tanks to help clean their massive acrylic windows with a cotton diaper.
“I’m more of a generalist,” he said of his management style. “I find it very motivating to have a diversity of things come across my desk. I’m not heavily detail-oriented, so I surround myself with people who are.”
On a recent morning, Swanagan was scurrying around the 500,000-square-foot facility as it prepared to open. One minute he was checking on three just-arrived beluga whales, the next he was chatting with a technician in the atrium about an audiovisual display.
Swanagan, however, paused — almost reverently — in front of a small, understated tank just beyond the massive, eye-popping coral exhibit. The so-called “jewel tank” contained three multicolored mandarin fish, which only grow to about 4 inches. It is, he admitted, his favorite exhibit. When the aquarium opens, he will wear a mandarin fish likeness on his name tag, hoping visitors will ask him about the creature.
“I went nuts when I saw these things,” he said. “I wanted to scream and hug the staff.”
A science teacher by training — he has taught at Mercer University and evening schools in Fayette County, and high school in Columbus, Ohio — Swanagan said his greatest joy still comes from imparting knowledge.
“When I can take someone who isn’t familiar with our industry and get them excited and give them the ‘wow’ moment, and have them say, ‘I didn’t know that. I want to learn more,’ that’s my big reward — every day when I can give that gift.”
