Finalists for Director, Waikiki Aquarium invited to campus for meetings and presentations

Three finalist candidates have been identified for the position of director for the Waikiki Aquarium, a unit of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. They have been invited for campus interviews during the first two weeks of October.

Search advisory committee chair Chuck Hayes expressed his gratitude to the committee for identifying three top caliber finalists. "Each of the candidates is eminently qualified for the director‘s job," Hayes said. "We were fortunate to have a talented pool of applicants and nominees from which to make our selections. We are anxious for the university community to meet them and to discover what each would bring to the job before we present our final comments to the Chancellor."

The three finalist candidates were selected from a pool of nearly three dozen applicants and nominees. They are:

John E. Heyning — Mr. Heyning is head of all research and related exhibition programs at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and oversees the museum‘s research collections totaling more than 33 million objects representing the natural and cultural world. He has extensive experience in developing exhibits, most notably the traveling exhibit Masters of the Ocean Realm: Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises that toured the United States, Canada and Japan. He has contributed to exhibit programs at the American Museum of Natural History, the Aquarium of the Pacific, and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. Dr. Heyning received his BS in Zoology at California State University, Long Beach, and both his master‘s and doctorate in Biology at UCLA.

Andrew Rossiter — Mr. Rossiter is senior research scientist and deputy chief of the aquarium section at Lake Biwa Museum in Kusatsu, Japan. He has been in the exhibitions section of the museum since 1999, working to upgrade the educational and scientific content of aquarium displays while maintaining or improving their entertainment value. Mr. Rossiter also heads the museum‘s Life Sciences Research Group, overseeing the research activities of 18 staff scientists and their junior employees and students. He received his BS in Zoology at the University College of Cardiff, Wales, and his Ph.D. in Aquatic Organismal Ecology at the University of North Wales.

Mark F.L. Smith — Mr. Smith is director, Animal Husbandry and Plant Operations, for International Design for the Environment and Associates (IDEA) in Australia. Since last year he has been a part of the IDEA team involved in development of aquarium and zoo projects throughout the world — including the Oceanario de Lisboa, where he served for a time as co-director. Smith was previously Curator of Fishes and Scientific Liaison at Sea World Australia, and supervised construction and start-up of L‘Aquarium de Barcelona in Spain. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, and his master‘s in Zoology from the University of Queensland.

Additional biographical information about the candidates and about the search process may be found on the Web at http://www.hawaii.edu/executivesearch/aquarium/. Each of the candidates will be in Honolulu for two days of meetings next month. Public presentations by each candidate at the Waikiki Aquarium‘s classroom — 2777 Kalakaua Avenue — are scheduled as follows:

Monday, October 6 — Andrew Rossiter

Thursday, October 9 — John Heyning

Monday, October 13 — Mark Smith

Each session is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. and conclude at 6:30 p.m., with a 20 minute presentation on the topic "The Roles of the Public Aquarium in Hawaiʻi," followed by questions and answers. Interested members of the university community are invited and encouraged to attend.

In addition to Chair Chuck Hayes, members of the search advisory committee are: Kent (Kim) W. Bridges, Associate Professor, Botany, UH Manoa; John S. Corbin, Manager, Aquaculture Development Program, State of Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture; Gerald L. Crow, Research Associate, Waikiki Aquarium; Jennifer A. Isobe, Chair, Friends of the Waikiki Aquariium; Deanna Lee, Administrative Officer, Waikiki Aquarium; Sherwood D. Maynard, Director, Marine Options Program; Ken Redman, Director, Honolulu Zoo; Murray E. Towill, President, Hawaiʻi Hotel Association.

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/executivesearch/aquarium/