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KATHERINE K. LEEA year after he arrived and helped put the facility on a sound financial footing, Dale Schmidt will leave.
CLEARWATER - The executive director of Clearwater Marine Aquarium resigned Friday to take a job as president and CEO of Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Ore.
Dale Schmidt, 47, has been director of the Clearwater aquarium for a year, though he had been in talks with the Oregon aquarium before taking the Clearwater job.
"I had spoken with the chair of the board out there over a year ago, but they weren't ready to fill the position then," Schmidt said.
Schmidt's last day in Clearwater will be Nov. 12.
His new duties at Oregon Coast Aquarium will involve overseeing marketing, fundraising and operations for the 34-acre, nonprofit facility where Kiko, the killer whale of Free Willy fame, was housed for a time.
Clearwater Marine Aquarium's board of directors will conduct a nationwide search for Schmidt's replacement. Director of development and community relations Gerri Raymond was named interim executive director Thursday.
Largo police Chief and aquarium board member Lester Aradi said three or four internal candidates had unofficially indicated they were interested in the job, for which Schmidt was paid $70,000 annually.
Aradi said the board will accept resumes until Dec. 1, and expects to name a new executive director by Feb. 1.
He added that Schmidt will be missed.
"From what I understand, he's going to a very prestigious aquarium and I'm sure he will do a great job there," Aradi said. "I hate to see him leave.
"I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone on the board when I wish him all the best. Now we have the job of finding his replacement."
Schmidt will be in charge of circulating a job notice nationally, but will not play a role in choosing his successor.
"I've given my input to the board, but I won't be anointing anyone," Schmidt said. "I was happy to develop in my time here a strong senior management team. For now, my job will be to get advertising out in the community."
Schmidt said he was proud of having helped the aquarium reach a sound financial footing in the last year, despite a series of hurricanes that hit during the facility's busy season, closing it for several days. The aquarium also rescued a stranded dolphin near Anclote Key and rehabilitated it at a cost of $1,200 per day.
"We lost revenue of about $100,000," he said. "We have been able to absorb it, but that has curtailed our ability to improve the facility."
He said he was sorry to leave Florida, where he worked as vice president of operations for the Florida Aquarium for nine years before joining Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
"I'm very sorry to go, it's been a great year," he said. "I was able to make a lot of friends and learn things, and I'll always have a special place in my heart for this place."
Raymond declined to say whether she was a candidate to replace Schmidt, but said she was not part of the search committee.
Raymond, 53, has been with the aquarium since 1999, and was with the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Long Center previously.
She said she expects to continue to make the aquarium more visible to the community, as well as continuing its research and rescue functions.
"The aquarium is moving forward, and Clearwater has a real gold mine right here in all we are and all we do," she said. "We have a working facility and doing tremendous things, teaching people and doing research.
"We're going to work on continuing to open up the aquarium so people see what we do behind the scenes."