An executive who led the team that designed, built and staffed the Georgia Aquarium has been named its new president.
David Kimmel, 55, most recently was the vice president and director of program management for Heery International, the firm that guided the aquarium through conception and construction. Kimmel also worked as a consultant on the $110 million dolphin exhibition set to open this fall.
Kimmel was out of the state and not available for interviews Tuesday. He will start at Georgia Aquarium this week. His salary has not been announced.
“In the 44 months it took to develop the Aquarium, I lived and breathed it – my involvement went beyond the bricks and mortar of the facility,” he said in a press release. “The Aquarium has a solid leadership team, people I have worked with on a day-to-day basis for more than eight years. Going into the office every day will be like ‘going home.’ My goal is to keep the Georgia Aquarium exciting for our guests.”
Aquarium CEO Bernie Marcus said Kimmel’s top priorities will be reopening the Cold Water Quest gallery within the next few weeks, launching the dolphin expansion later this year and continuing to develop the aquarium’s five- and 15-year plans. His biggest challenge: improving the aquarium while navigating the rough economy.
The aquarium drew 2.2 million visitors in 2009, holding to the same level as the year before. Attendance peaked at 3.6 million in 2006, the first full year the aquarium was open.
“I feel very comfortable that if something happened to me tomorrow, [the aquarium] would continue,” Marcus said. “The only thing he hasn’t been involved with is marketing and advertising and guest services, to some extent. These are things he’s going to learn as time goes on.”
Former president Anthony Godfrey unexpectedly resigned this month for personal reasons. He had joined the aquarium as chief financial officer in 2005, the year it opened. Godfrey was the attraction’s third president in two years, replacing Mike Leven, who left the aquarium to join the Las Vegas Sands Corp. in 2009. The aquarium’s first leader, Jeff Swanagan, left in 2008 to lead the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in his home state of Ohio. Swanagan died of a heart attack in 2009.
Marcus said he wants Kimmel to stay with the aquarium “forever.” He noted that Kimmel already has relationships with the staff, including the animal care and research staffs.
“When we brought Mike Leven in, we were really considering David at that time,” Marcus said. “I knew after Anthony resigned, almost that day. He has knowledge of just about everything in the aquarium. We don’t have to break somebody in and show him where the bathrooms are. He understands the philosophy, that it has to be fresh-looking, that it has to be different every year.”
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