Founding Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard announces transition to Board of Trustees leadership role after 40 years

MONTEREY, Calif., Jan. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Julie Packard, who shaped the Monterey Bay Aquarium as a global leader in ocean conservation, marine life exhibits, and environmental education during 40 years as the aquarium's first and only executive director, announced today she will be transitioning from the executive director role to assume a leadership role on the Aquarium's Board of Trustees. 

Packard, who served as project director during the aquarium's planning and construction from 1978-1984, will continue to serve as executive director until a successor comes on board. The aquarium will retain an executive search firm to support the global search process.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to lead the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the past 40 years," Packard said. "When our founders first envisioned an aquarium focused on the marine life of Monterey Bay, we had high expectations. What we've achieved is so much more than anything we could have imagined."

With Packard at the helm, Monterey Bay Aquarium transformed public awareness of ocean issues and marine life from the day it opened, on October 20, 1984. Consistently ranked as the top aquarium in the world, it has attracted more than 72 million visitors – including more than 2.7 million students admitted free of charge for class visits and education programs. Its focus on exhibiting marine life of a single region – the waters of Monterey Bay – and displaying those plants and animals living together as they would in the wild was unprecedented when it opened and helped to transform the aquarium world. In 2024 alone, the aquarium welcomed more than two million visitors. Nearly 60 percent self-identified as Hispanic, Black, Asian, Native American, Pacific Island, Middle Eastern/North African, multiple/mixed, or other – mirroring the growing diversity of California's population.

"I'm deeply grateful for the amazing generosity of our members and donors who have enabled us to achieve the Packard family's original intent: that the Aquarium endure far into the future," Packard said. "I'm excited to continue to build on this success, for the benefit of the ocean and future generations."

 "Julie Packard has truly been a visionary leader," said aquarium board Chair Tegan Acton. "I and my colleagues on the Board of Trustees are so grateful for everything she's done. I look forward to working with Julie as we search for her successor, and in her future leadership role on the Aquarium board."

Under Packard, who earned a master's degree in marine algal ecology at UC Santa Cruz, the aquarium's living exhibits became an extension of Monterey Bay itself. Its open seawater system pumps water directly from the bay into a 28-foot-deep living kelp forest – with no charismatic large sharks or marine mammals. It became the aquarium's most beloved and signature exhibit, emblematic of its innovative approach to exhibit design.

That spirit of innovation led to the Aquarium's creation of a changing special exhibitions program, which when it began in 1988 was unheard of in the aquarium world but is now commonplace. That program led to breakthroughs in the culture and display of delicate jellies and collaborations with MBARI – the independent Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute established by Packard's father, HP co-founder David Packard – to exhibit rarely seen deep-sea animals.

In 1996, the 1.2-million-gallon Open Sea exhibit extended the aquarium's ocean storytelling beyond Monterey Bay. It remains the only exhibit outside Japan with a permanent display of fast-swimming tuna and was the temporary home of a half-dozen juvenile white sharks that the aquarium collected, cared for, and successfully returned to the wild in the early 2000s.

Exhibiting sea otters led to its pioneering Sea Otter Program, in which non-releasable exhibit otters serve as surrogate mothers for stranded otter pups. The pups are returned to the wild or find homes at other accredited aquariums and zoos. Aquarium-reared otters are contributing to the ecological recovery of coastal wetlands like Elkhorn Slough and support healthy kelp forests at a time when they're on the decline in coastal areas without sea otters.

"Julie is a global force for ocean conservation whose impact reaches far beyond Monterey Bay Aquarium," Acton said. "She has continually identified new opportunities to make a difference and has built a strong team at the Aquarium that's doing so much to protect and restore the living ocean."

Packard's marine science background led the aquarium to build scientific research programs around marine life in aquarium exhibits – programs that have contributed to a deeper understanding of ocean processes. 

Before the Open Sea exhibit opened, Packard supported a partnership with Stanford University that created a Tuna Research and Conservation Center at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. This partnership led to the development and deployment of electronic tracking tags in the wild on Atlantic and Pacific bluefin tuna, white sharks, and other open-ocean species. Findings from tag data about the migrations and physiology of these wide-ranging species are key to the recovery of Pacific bluefin tuna and inform the management of bluefin tunas and white sharks.

A temporary exhibit, championed by Packard to address sustainability issues in seafood production, evolved into the creation of the aquarium's Seafood Watch program. From modest beginnings as a way to build consumer awareness, it has grown over 25 years into a science-and market-based initiative that is transforming how seafood is fished and farmed around the world so people and the planet can thrive now and in the future.

Shortly after the creation of Seafood Watch, the aquarium supported the establishment of a science-based network of marine protected areas along the length of the California coast – the first of its many ocean policy initiatives. Today, it is a leading voice in negotiations for an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty and has led successful efforts, in California and beyond, to end the shark fin trade, ban microplastic beads in personal care products, and tackle the plastic pollution crisis – first with bans on plastic straws and single-use shopping bags, and by holding manufacturers responsible for the plastic they produce.

Packard made addressing climate change and its impacts on ocean health one of the Aquarium's top priorities. As one of the first cultural institutions to sign the "We are Still In" declaration, a pledge in support of the Paris climate accords, the aquarium has engaged its audiences at all levels in climate action, including a biennial Climate Action Projects Summit that engages educators and students in climate initiatives in their communities.

Packard has also leveraged the power of other aquariums, urging them to be more active conservation advocates, and led Monterey Bay Aquarium to help establish the Aquarium Conservation Partnership. This collaboration among 32 aquariums, zoos, and allied organizations in the U.S. and Canada advocates for ocean-friendly policies in their communities and nationwide.

She has consistently used her voice for the ocean, serving on both the Pew Oceans Commission and Joint Oceans Commission Initiative, which advocated for a comprehensive national ocean policy in the United States. For her work, Packard has been honored with the Audubon Medal for Conservation, the University of California Presidential Medal, the R. Marlin Perkins Award for Professional Excellence given by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation Innovator Award, and as a California Coastal Hero by the state Coastal Commission.

Packard will continue to serve on the boards of the Packard Foundation, where she is vice chair, and MBARI, where she has served as board chair since 1996. Over the past two years, she's helped the aquarium craft a five-year strategic plan and a new vision statement to guide its work, to contribute to "a future where the ocean flourishes and people thrive in a just and equitable world."

"Now," Packard added, "it's time to pass the torch to a new leader who will chart the aquarium's course in the decades to come. We have a fantastic staff and volunteer team, a unique and powerful experience for our guests, and a critical mission. The Aquarium's future is brighter than ever. I can't wait to see what comes next."

About Monterey Bay Aquarium

With a mission to inspire conservation of the ocean, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is the most admired aquarium in the United States, a leader in science education, and a voice for ocean conservation through comprehensive programs in marine science and public policy. Everything we do works in concert to protect the future of our blue planet. More information at MontereyBayAquarium.org.

SOURCE Monterey Bay Aquarium