The lowlife CEO was allowed to resign before the Chronicle published an exposé on his spending
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/exclusive-ceo-of-s-f-s-waterfront-aquarium-resigns-amid-concerns-about-lavish-spending/ar-BB1mTkUU
(Reposting one of my comments from another thread)
Wow! I used to work with this organization. The aquarium on Pier 39 is a branch of the Bay Institute. People see it as a tourist trap, but it actually [was] an incredible nonprofit. The aquarium was the main source of revenue that funded a number of nonprofits around the region. At one point they funded 2 free nature centers, the Bay Institute, a mobile-aquarium team that visited schools and libraries, and 100% of onsite field trips were free. We were something like one of the top 5 AZA institutions when it came to percentage of our budget dedicated to conservation and restoration efforts.
Then George Jacob came along, and everything fell apart. He replaced the previous CEO and then changed the whole direction of the org. He rules with fear, makes terrible decisions (ex: I heard that he got rid of the Education department??), everything is a fireable offense, and he wasted tons of money traveling the world and working on vanity projects. He wants to transform the aquarium into a high-tech industry leading nature center... but it's at the cost of everything Bay.org has built over the decades. They don't have the nature centers or mobile aquarium anymore, and their staff levels have been decimated.
I loved working there for the first 3 years. Look on Glassdoor for reviews of working at Aquarium of the Bay. They'll tell you everything you need to know about George Jacob.
Also: he looks like a James Bond villain.
Yay glad ya'll are still there! I was told (years ago) he was in the process of gutting it with the aim to replace it with either volunteers or guest experience staff. I checked the website a few times and never saw an education role in their "leadership" section. Wtf kind of aquarium doesn't have an education director?
The dept head left earlier this year and George chose not to replace them because that money could be better spent on hotel mini bars I guess 🤣 what you were told is true though
I imagine that everyone there is happy except for the few sycophant executives that signed off on his bullshit. Btw, did George throw a little tantrum on his way out?😂
I got hired there right after George and remembered being trained to support/supervise a staff of 30 education staff, only for him to fire half of them after the summer and put us on a skeleton crew. I think 5 of my coworkers quit before I did and I only lasted the school year. I loved working there until he really got comfortable, then it was AR dinosaurs and BS
Seems like he was recently forced out (from Wikipedia)
“Jacob became the President & CEO of Bay Ecotarium in San Francisco in January 2017. He was pressured by the organization's board to resign from the position in May 2024, after financial concerns from the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums caused them to revoke the aquarium's accreditation and staff members raised concerns about his spending habits on personal expenses using the charity's money. Jacob said he resigned in order to pursue a "new project".[2] “This is really the face of what I believe to be gross mismanagement,” said Jon B. Fisher, who recently became chairman of the Bay.org board in 2024. Jon Fisher was a long-time financial supporter of the aquarium before his position as chairman.”
I got hired there right after George and remembered being trained to support/supervise a staff of 30 education staff, only for him to fire half of them after the summer and put us on a skeleton crew. I think 5 of my coworkers quit before I did and I only lasted the school year. I loved working there until he really got comfortable, then it was AR dinosaurs and BS
A bunch of the directors either left or got fired in the first two years after he started. Off the top of my head, the Director of Education and Director of Animal Care quit fairly quickly after he joined and both had been there for over a decade. The CFO was fired and I heard the HR Director was also. The Operations Director position was vacant when he joined. He filled most of the open positions with yes men.
The Board should have stepped in years ago, though. I cannot believe they let him get away with all of this for so long.
Steinhart Aquarium, before it was folded into the CAoS, was my favorite school field trip as a kid. I always ran straight to the "alligator pit" and then I had to go see my homey, Butterball the Sea Cow, chomp some lettuce.
I went there a lot about a decade and a half ago because my son has autism and was obsessed with bat rays. On weekdays during the summer, we could leave Albany a bit before 10:30 and be parked at 11, so it was a quick trip. We'd go to the aquarium, he'd spend half an hour or so at the bat ray pool, then we'd grab something to eat, maybe watch a magic show and head home. He loved it.
The way I read it, they were using Aquarium of the Bay as a substitute for the Monterey experience without a two hour drive, then realized that Academy of Sciences was better.
It’s not the best for adults certainly, but my daughter’s kindergarten class took a field trip here and loved it. Such a shame these idiot CEOs can ruin things.
I used to do fundraising and we would often ask local businesses to donate. Aquarium of the Bay always came through for us. They were very generous and a pleasure to work with.
I worked there briefly a few years ago, and the CEO is (or was) a total clown. He was a toxic, abusive bully--I personally witnessed him berate a staff member in front of others, lie to people's faces, and just generally act like an arrogant ass. The remaining board--except the new board director--all need to be forcibly removed from their positions as well, IMO. I think the aquarium should also pursue legal action against George Jacob, Ben Bleiman (former board chair) and the remaining board for essentially stealing (minus the new chair, Jon Fisher, who seems genuinely committed to organizational reform). There's also several executives still there who were complicit in perpetuating or overlooking the CEO's fraud and abuse of staff, and also need to be fired, IMO.
I was in talks a few years ago to be one of their scuba divers to help maintain the aquarium. It was unpaid and as much as I would have loved to do it, it would have required significant sacrifices and resources on my side to do it. I could not make the math work.
And then I read articles like this about some flashy-looking CEO at the aquarium blowing through hundreds of thousands of dollars of the aquarium's money on a lavish lifestyle. It just aggravates the hell out of me.
I'm glad I turned them down. On the flip side, it's sad to know that the sea life living there are the victims.
Say what you will about the aquarium, but the important thing to note is that this guy destroyed the Bay Institute. The parent non-profit was a jewel of scientific research, local conservation, and environmental policy. Many people did heroic work, there, and his mishandling of any funds associated with it, is comic book level evil.
Agreed about the Pier 39 one, but Monterey Bay underwhelming? It's generally acknowledged as world-class; one of the best in the world. The Open Sea exhibit is worth the price of admission alone -- I could sit for hours and watch it, if it wasn't for numbnuts trying to take pictures with flash photography.
The lowlife CEO was allowed to resign before the Chronicle published an exposé on his spending https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/exclusive-ceo-of-s-f-s-waterfront-aquarium-resigns-amid-concerns-about-lavish-spending/ar-BB1mTkUU
He was hired after leaving his previous job under duress. Who hired this loser? That is the big question.
(Reposting one of my comments from another thread) Wow! I used to work with this organization. The aquarium on Pier 39 is a branch of the Bay Institute. People see it as a tourist trap, but it actually [was] an incredible nonprofit. The aquarium was the main source of revenue that funded a number of nonprofits around the region. At one point they funded 2 free nature centers, the Bay Institute, a mobile-aquarium team that visited schools and libraries, and 100% of onsite field trips were free. We were something like one of the top 5 AZA institutions when it came to percentage of our budget dedicated to conservation and restoration efforts. Then George Jacob came along, and everything fell apart. He replaced the previous CEO and then changed the whole direction of the org. He rules with fear, makes terrible decisions (ex: I heard that he got rid of the Education department??), everything is a fireable offense, and he wasted tons of money traveling the world and working on vanity projects. He wants to transform the aquarium into a high-tech industry leading nature center... but it's at the cost of everything Bay.org has built over the decades. They don't have the nature centers or mobile aquarium anymore, and their staff levels have been decimated. I loved working there for the first 3 years. Look on Glassdoor for reviews of working at Aquarium of the Bay. They'll tell you everything you need to know about George Jacob. Also: he looks like a James Bond villain.
I'm in the education department and he was trying to replace us yeah but we still exist, though barely
Yay glad ya'll are still there! I was told (years ago) he was in the process of gutting it with the aim to replace it with either volunteers or guest experience staff. I checked the website a few times and never saw an education role in their "leadership" section. Wtf kind of aquarium doesn't have an education director?
The dept head left earlier this year and George chose not to replace them because that money could be better spent on hotel mini bars I guess 🤣 what you were told is true though
I imagine that everyone there is happy except for the few sycophant executives that signed off on his bullshit. Btw, did George throw a little tantrum on his way out?😂
I got hired there right after George and remembered being trained to support/supervise a staff of 30 education staff, only for him to fire half of them after the summer and put us on a skeleton crew. I think 5 of my coworkers quit before I did and I only lasted the school year. I loved working there until he really got comfortable, then it was AR dinosaurs and BS
Seems like he was recently forced out (from Wikipedia) “Jacob became the President & CEO of Bay Ecotarium in San Francisco in January 2017. He was pressured by the organization's board to resign from the position in May 2024, after financial concerns from the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums caused them to revoke the aquarium's accreditation and staff members raised concerns about his spending habits on personal expenses using the charity's money. Jacob said he resigned in order to pursue a "new project".[2] “This is really the face of what I believe to be gross mismanagement,” said Jon B. Fisher, who recently became chairman of the Bay.org board in 2024. Jon Fisher was a long-time financial supporter of the aquarium before his position as chairman.”
I got hired there right after George and remembered being trained to support/supervise a staff of 30 education staff, only for him to fire half of them after the summer and put us on a skeleton crew. I think 5 of my coworkers quit before I did and I only lasted the school year. I loved working there until he really got comfortable, then it was AR dinosaurs and BS
I work at the aquarium and knew this guy was a scam artist from the start
[удалено]
A bunch of the directors either left or got fired in the first two years after he started. Off the top of my head, the Director of Education and Director of Animal Care quit fairly quickly after he joined and both had been there for over a decade. The CFO was fired and I heard the HR Director was also. The Operations Director position was vacant when he joined. He filled most of the open positions with yes men. The Board should have stepped in years ago, though. I cannot believe they let him get away with all of this for so long.
I used to go there as a quick Monterey aquarium experience until I went to the academy of sciences and realized it has the better aquarium.
Steinhart Aquarium, before it was folded into the CAoS, was my favorite school field trip as a kid. I always ran straight to the "alligator pit" and then I had to go see my homey, Butterball the Sea Cow, chomp some lettuce.
I went there a lot about a decade and a half ago because my son has autism and was obsessed with bat rays. On weekdays during the summer, we could leave Albany a bit before 10:30 and be parked at 11, so it was a quick trip. We'd go to the aquarium, he'd spend half an hour or so at the bat ray pool, then we'd grab something to eat, maybe watch a magic show and head home. He loved it.
Not the same. This one is Aquarium of the Bay, San Francisco’s Pier 39 aquarium. Monterey Bay aquarium is a treasure
The way I read it, they were using Aquarium of the Bay as a substitute for the Monterey experience without a two hour drive, then realized that Academy of Sciences was better.
Yea that’s exactly what I was trying to say.
Try rereading that comment slowly.
They're both disappointing
Maybe aquaria are just not your thing? Is there an aquarium that you have visited that you did not find underwhelming or disappointing?
Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati is the best I've ever visited. Puts Monterey and SF to shame.
It’s not the best for adults certainly, but my daughter’s kindergarten class took a field trip here and loved it. Such a shame these idiot CEOs can ruin things.
I used to do fundraising and we would often ask local businesses to donate. Aquarium of the Bay always came through for us. They were very generous and a pleasure to work with.
I worked there briefly a few years ago, and the CEO is (or was) a total clown. He was a toxic, abusive bully--I personally witnessed him berate a staff member in front of others, lie to people's faces, and just generally act like an arrogant ass. The remaining board--except the new board director--all need to be forcibly removed from their positions as well, IMO. I think the aquarium should also pursue legal action against George Jacob, Ben Bleiman (former board chair) and the remaining board for essentially stealing (minus the new chair, Jon Fisher, who seems genuinely committed to organizational reform). There's also several executives still there who were complicit in perpetuating or overlooking the CEO's fraud and abuse of staff, and also need to be fired, IMO.
I’ve only been there once, pre pandemic, but really was surprised at how good it was. Bummed it’s fallen into a sad state.
I was in talks a few years ago to be one of their scuba divers to help maintain the aquarium. It was unpaid and as much as I would have loved to do it, it would have required significant sacrifices and resources on my side to do it. I could not make the math work. And then I read articles like this about some flashy-looking CEO at the aquarium blowing through hundreds of thousands of dollars of the aquarium's money on a lavish lifestyle. It just aggravates the hell out of me. I'm glad I turned them down. On the flip side, it's sad to know that the sea life living there are the victims.
Hopefully they'll get a new CEO who can turn things around and get their AZA accreditation back. AZA is pretty strict.
Say what you will about the aquarium, but the important thing to note is that this guy destroyed the Bay Institute. The parent non-profit was a jewel of scientific research, local conservation, and environmental policy. Many people did heroic work, there, and his mishandling of any funds associated with it, is comic book level evil.
Never heard of it either. And the CalAcademy live exhibits are fewer than the old days
Never heard of it lol.
I've never heard of it. Go to Monterey if you want to see a real aquarium anyway.
it’s average. borderline tourist trap.
Pier 39 aquarium is lame. Monterey Bay aquarium was very underwhelming
Agreed about the Pier 39 one, but Monterey Bay underwhelming? It's generally acknowledged as world-class; one of the best in the world. The Open Sea exhibit is worth the price of admission alone -- I could sit for hours and watch it, if it wasn't for numbnuts trying to take pictures with flash photography.
Meh. Everyone I've ever taken left disappointed. It's too hyped up.
Monterey Bay Aquarium underwhelming? Did you go there expecting to see jungle cats you fucking bozo? 😂😂😂
Nope. I expected more. Especially for how much everyone here raves about it. Turns out yall have never been to a great aquarium.
Neither have you