A longtime Duluth business and civic leader will take the helm of the Great Lakes Aquarium.
The aquarium's board of directors decided unanimously last week to hire Jack LaVoy as executive director. The board announced its decision Monday.
"Jack fits," GLA Board Chairman Pat Schoff said. "He has the breadth of experience and a wealth of local connections."
"Plus he's very interested," Schoff said, noting that LaVoy was Mayor Herb Bergson's choice to lead the "Blue Ribbon panel" to re-evaluate the status of the Great Lakes Aquarium's four-year-old plan to make it self-sufficient.
"I don't think that Jack knew a whole lot about the aquarium going into that process, but it seems to me that during that process he grew to be extremely interested and enthusiastic about the prospects for the place," Schoff said.
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LaVoy has been the director of business expansion for APEX, a private sector
economic-development group, since August 2006. He'll assume his new position on Nov. 1.
"I really like the work I've been doing at APEX, but when the board approached me about taking on this task, I thought it could be a very interesting, enjoyable, challenging opportunity," LaVoy said Monday. "Some of my experience over the years might be helpful in helping to continue building upon the good foundation that's been laid in the past few years in putting the thing on a sound financial footing."
The GLA board's decision to resume local control of the aquarium was in response to the decision by Ripley's Leisure Entertainment to withdraw from its management of the Duluth attraction. Ripley's and its GLA site director, Chad Netherland, were credited with stabilizing the world's only freshwater aquarium and reducing its city subsidies by slicing staff and focusing on bringing in new attractions, as well as keeping those already there in working order.
But in June, Netherland took a job as manager of the aquarium in Myrtle Beach, S.C. In July, Ripley's, which was in the third year of a five-year contract, notified the GLA that it would terminate the contract Oct. 20.
"Ripley's Leisure Entertainment and the employees of the Great Lakes Aquarium are to be applauded for the extraordinary job they have done over the past several years in reducing the facility's costs and strengthening its operations; the move to local control will continue that progress," Schoff said.
LaVoy said he will focus on operating the aquarium in a fiscally responsible manner.
"I want to first focus on making sure all exhibits are in good working order, that all animal exhibits are fully stocked and in good health," he said. "Then I want to engage the staff and the board and community stake holders in looking at the facility and helping develop a vision for how we might grow it over time."
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Before Ripley's stepped in, the city partially closed the aquarium and had to take over management after it went broke because of construction delays, a huge staff and wildly inaccurate attendance projections. Experts say the aquarium, owned by the state, probably will always need a city subsidy.
The aquarium receives about $480,000 a year from the city for operating expenses and to pay off construction and other debts.
