Benin RPCV Mark Wourms is new chief executive officer of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden
Former zoo chief to head Arboretum
By Mary Bender , Staff Writer
ARCADIA -- The former head of the Kansas City Zoo has been hired to become the new chief executive officer of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, a year after the previous CEO resigned.
Mark Wourms, who ran the zoo for 11 years, is expected to start his new job this month perhaps as soon as Monday. He could not be reached for comment Thursday because he is in the process of moving his family to California, officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation said.
Wourms was chosen to fill the spot vacant since last July after a nationwide search. A 10-member committee interviewed finalists.
"We were looking for somebody who (could) be a leader and a spokesperson for the Arboretum,' said George Brumder, president of the Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation board of trustees.
"He's articulate. He's very positive,' Brumder said. "He certainly had a successful record at the Kansas City Zoo.'
Wourms will be paid $90,384 per year by the county, along with a monthly salary of $2,885 from the Arboretum Foundation, said Sheila Ortega, a spokeswoman from the county parks department.
The foundation portion of his salary is subject to approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, possibly in August, Ortega said. The nonprofit foundation and the county parks department jointly operate the 127-acre Arboretum.
Wourms holds a doctorate in ecology and animal behavior from Boston University, and a bachelor's degree in botany from Ohio University. He also served in the Peace Corps during the 1980s, where he was involved in crop improvement and village reforestation programs in the African nation of Benin.
He was director of the 202-acre Kansas City Zoo, home to 900 animals from six continents, from 1992 until April 2003.
Wourms also will be given $15,000 in relocation assistance, Ortega said. He succeeds Peter Atkins, who served four years as the Arboretum's first institution-wide CEO.
After Atkins' departure, Arboretum Superintendent Timothy Phillips was appointed as the interim CEO until a permanent replacement could be found. "He did a marvelous job,' Brumder said.
Atkins came to the Arcadia preserve from previous posts in New York, Texas and North Carolina. He ran afoul of the Arboretum's large docent corps, Los Voluntarios, when he and the foundation asked county supervisors to use a new name L.A. County Botanic Garden in publicity, logos and advertising materials.
The arboretum name dated to 1947, when the Baldwin Avenue preserve opened, and Los Voluntarios circulated a petition against efforts to drop or downplay the name.
-- Mary Bender can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4456, or by e-mail at mary.schubert@sgvn.com .
