Five new members join Aquarium Board of Trustees

Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld among 2021 class

BOSTON, MASS. (December 29, 2020) – Five new members, including a former Massachusetts governor and an environmental journalist, are joining the New England Aquarium Board of Trustees.

At a recent meeting, the board voted to add Steve Curwood, Pam Holding, Alexander Leventhal, Vikki N. Spruill, and William Weld to its ranks. Annie Bourne will be joining the Board of Ambassadors.

“We’re thrilled to welcome these new trustees, who bring a wealth of world-class expertise in areas including business, finance, and the environment,” said Thomas R. Burton III, a Boston attorney who chairs the board. “They will no doubt strengthen leadership on our distinguished board at a time that has presented both challenges and opportunities for growth at the New England Aquarium.”

The new members bring the Board of Trustees to 23 members and the Board of Ambassadors to 52. They will hold office for a term of three years.

Steve Curwood is Executive Producer and Host of Living on Earth, an independent environmental media program of World Media Foundation Inc., of which Mr. Curwood serves as President. Mr. Curwood has been a journalist for more than 30 years with experience at NPR, CBS News, the Boston Globe, WBUR and WGBH.  He has also served as a Lecturer in Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard University.

Pam Holding has served as an Aquarium Ambassador since 2013. Ms. Holding is Co-Head of Fidelity Investments’ Equity Division, overseeing all of Fidelity’s equity portfolio managers, research analysts and trading teams. She also serves as Co-Executive Sponsor of Fidelity’s Women’s Leadership Group and the Asset Management Lead for Fidelity’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) platform.

Alexander Leventhal has served as an Aquarium Ambassador since 2008 and as Chair of the Board of Ambassadors since 2017. He is Managing Partner of Faros Properties, a Real Estate Investment Firm. Mr. Leventhal is on the Board of Directors for the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library and is an Advisors Council Member at WGBH Boston.

Vikki N. Spruill is the President and CEO of the New England Aquarium, having joined the Aquarium in 2018.  She previously held the role of President and CEO of the Council on Foundations from 2012 to 2018 and of the Ocean Conservancy from 2006 to 2012.  Ms. Spruill founded the Trash Free Seas Alliance, an industry collaborative producing research on the impacts of plastic in the ocean, and helped found and currently serves on the board of COMPASS, which works to help scientists engage in the public discourse on environmental issues.

William Weld is a member with the law firm Mintz and principal with the firm’s government relations subsidiary, ML Strategies. He was a federal prosecutor for seven years before serving as governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. Gov. Weld pursued higher office as a Libertarian candidate for vice president of the United States in 2016 and mounted a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020.

Annie Bourne previously served as an Aquarium Ambassador from 2016 to 2018. Ms. Bourne currently holds the role of Vice President and General Counsel for Nasuni, a cloud-native file services platform. She previously held executive roles at Akamai Technologies and founded Ivy Road East LLC, which provides legal consultation services to start-ups.  She is a Tech Stars Mentor and author.

The new board members are joining the Aquarium’s leadership team as the institution faces unprecedented challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aquarium is currently closed to the public to help slow the spread of the virus in the City of Boston.

A full list of the Aquarium’s board members can be found here.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Pam Bechtold Snyder – psnyder@neaq.org, 617-686-5068