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Leadership, Board & Financials

A white wave shape.

Executive team

ROBERT W. DAVIDSON (BOB)

President & CEO

Rick Johnson

Chief Operations Officer (Interim)

Erin Meyer, PH.D.

Chief Conservation Officer

GRANT ABEL

VP of Life Sciences

DEREK BAKER

Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives & Government Affairs

SUSAN BULLERDICK, PH.D.

Senior Director of Capital Projects

EFRAT HURVITZ

Senior Director of People & Culture

Rick Johnson

VP of Finance

TIM KUNIHOLM

Senior Director of Public Relations & Strategic Partnerships

TOM NGUYEN

Senior Director of Technology

JESSE PHILLIPS-KRESS

VP of Facilities & Operations

RACHAEL WEAKLAND

VP of Philanthropy

JIM WHARTON, PH.D.

VP of Conservation Engagement & Learning

KAT WILLSON

VP of Marketing & Communications

Board meetings

Board meetings are held at 12pm, unless otherwise noted. Meetings are open to the public and will be held at the Seattle Aquarium and simultaneously streamed online.

2024 board meeting dates

  • March 26
  • April 16
  • May 14
  • June 18
  • September 24
  • November 19
  • December 17
PUBLIC COMMENTS

Public comments are welcome at the board meetings. A 10-minute public comment period is provided at the beginning of each regular meeting of the board.

A sign-up sheet will be available upon check-in at the Seattle Aquarium. Time will allotted on a first come, first served basis with up to two minutes allowed per speaker. Public comments can also be submitted via email at publiccomment@seattleaquarium.org

All written comments must be submitted by 10am the Monday before the meeting and will be distributed to all board members prior to the meeting. If you have questions regarding board meetings, please send an email to contactus@seattleaquarium.org.

Board information

For inquiries regarding the Seattle Aquarium Board of Directors or Auxiliary Board, please contact us.

officers

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

*Executive committee.   **Ex-officio.   †Past chair

Chair*

Michael Guidon, Goldman Sachs

Immediate past chair*†

Melissa Mager, Conservationist and retired attorney

Treasurer*

Karissa A. Marker, retired, KPMG

Secretary*

Erin J. Letey, Fox Rothschild LLP

President & CEO**

Robert W. Davidson

Directors

Mike Anderson, Pay Northwest LLC
Kevin L. Blair, Washington Trust Bank
Andrew Bleiman, Tractive GmbH
John R. Braden, retired, Seattle Aquarium
Fa’izah Bradford, Strands Leadership for Results
Duncan Butcher, ARTICA
Bill Chapin, NHL Seattle
Eddie Chang, Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty
Cary Clark, Argosy Cruises
Baionne Coleman, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy; The Global Majority Consortium
AP Diaz, Seattle Parks and Recreation
Patti Dill, Community Volunteer
*†Bob C. Donegan, Ivar’s, Inc.
*William T. Einstein, Community Volunteer
Susan L. Gates, retired, Beneficial State Bank
Philip M. Guess, K&L Gates LLP
*†James C. Gurke, retired, Getty Images
†Dan M. Guy III, retired, Columbia Pacific Capital Management
Janet Haberbush, Community Volunteer
*Stephanie Kornblum, Marketing law attorney
Mark E. Kramer, F5 Networks
Katherine A. Krogslund, University of Washington, School of Oceanography
Gary Kunis, Community Volunteer
*Lisa C. Luther, Nordstrom
*Laura MacNeil, PNC Bank, N.A.
Dave Magee, CBRE
†J. Terry McLaughlin, retired, The Professional Basketball Club, LLC
Robert W. Power, SEA CON LLC
Tom Raaf, eBay
*†Stuart T. Rolfe, Wright Hotels, Inc.
Susan Ruffo, United Nations Foundation
Casey J. Schuchart, Schuchart
Ivan Seda, BECU
Christian Sinderman, Northwest Passage Consulting
*Gary S. Smith, Lease Crutcher Lewis
*Gary T. Smith, Smith and Stark
Rachel Smith, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Julie Syrdal, Community Volunteer
*†Randy J. Tinseth, retired, The Boeing Company
Marcus Trufant, Trufant Family Foundation; Self Storage; retired Seattle Seahawks
Michael Trzupek, Imagination Technologies
Ténika Versey Walker, NVIDIA
Carla C. Wigen, Laird Norton Wealth Management
Christopher Williams, Parks Alternate
*†George V. Willoughby Jr., retired, King Broadcasting
*Charles Wright, Wright Associates
Susie Wyckoff, Community volunteer

Emeritus

†Ted Ackerley
**William C. Arntz
†Don Audleman
Mary L. Bass
Gini Beck
Lesley Canfield
†Dan Hungate 
Linda K. Johnson
†James P. Kerr
†Paul J. Kundtz
Eric Steinwinder

officers

AUXILIARY BOARD

The Seattle Aquarium auxiliary board formed in December of 2014 to actively involve Seattle’s young professionals and their communities in the Aquarium’s mission through innovative and engaging programs, events and activities. 

Chair

Emily Power, Ocean Made 

Vice chair

Jes Collins, Community Volunteer

Treasurer

Lindsay Everhart, Goldman Sachs

Secretary

Meghan Sawyer, Tractive

Members

Bill Berger, Deriva Energy
Alaina Gregory, Apple
David Hamlin, Xenon Arc
Deb Kay Murphy, Frog
Nicole Pargoff, Community Volunteer
Athalie Rohr, West Monroe
Krysta Rose, Hashi Corp
Ryan Scott, Accelerate Design
Bryant Smick, Grafana Labs
Brandon Smith, Amazon

A photo of a young boy standing in front of the harbor seal habitat; a harbor seal floats vertically behind him. A small banner at the top reads "Annual Report 2022." The Seattle Aquarium logo is in the bottom right corner.

2022 ANNUAL REPORT

A photo of the outside of the Seattle Aquarium building. A blue banner covering the top third of the image reads "Seattle Aquarium 2020 annual report." A blue banner covering the bottom third of the image contains the Seattle Aquarium logo in the bottom right corner.

2020 ANNUAL REPORT

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Website maintenance

Please note: Our ticketing and membership systems will be offline for approximately two hours starting at 9pm Pacific on Tuesday, February 20. During the maintenance window, online ticketing and membership will not be available.

Thank you for understanding.

Support the Seattle Aquarium

Two sea otters at the Seattle Aquarium floating on the water in their habitat, holding onto each other demonstrating a rafting behavior.

With your help, the Seattle Aquarium builds connections with our community to inspire conservation and curiosity for marine life. When you make an end-of-year gift by December 31, you'll be joining us in protecting our shared marine environment—now and for generations to come. Thank you!

An adult sea otter at the Seattle Aquarium looking upwards with its front paws resting on its front.

Giving Tuesday

Make a tax-deductible donation to the non-profit Seattle Aquarium

Your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000 thanks to a very generous anonymous donor!

Sea otter at the Seattle Aquarium laying on its back, raising its head and front paws.

Cyber weekend

Get 15% OFF all memberships!