Draft:Roger Germann

Roger Germann is president and chief executive officer of the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida. He has led the Aquarium since 2017, and he is a member of the board of directors of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Germann’s father was a railroad inspector and his mother was a public school teacher. He grew up on the Southwest Side of Chicago and in the Southwest suburbs. He moved with his family to Seminole, Florida, where he graduated from Osceola High School in 1987. He then returned to Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in communications.

Career
Early in Germann's career, he worked as a freelance producer for America's Funniest People and writer/producer for WLS-TV in Chicago. He worked for the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office during the 1990s.

In 2000, Germann joined the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago as a communications director and later became its executive vice president. During his time on the organization’s executive leadership team, he led government, community, media and industry relations as well as directing external affairs. Germann also led the aquarium’s largest conservation initiative - Great Lakes and Sustainability.

While at the Shedd Aquarium, Germann served as chair of Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Aquarium Affairs Committee and as a member of their Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) Steering Committee. He won a Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America, which celebrates the best strategic public relations campaigns of the year.

During his time in Chicago, Germann also served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Advisory Board, implementing the agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. He also was a Huffington Post contributor on Great Lakes issues.

Germann became CEO of The Florida Aquarium in 2017, and he led the institution as it received its first American Humane certification and was accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

In 2019 under Germann’s leadership, The Aquarium completed a $4-million Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center, a 19,000 square-foot facility that houses four rehabilitation pools, a deep-dive foraging pool and a state-of-the-art veterinary suite.

The Aquarium also became the first facility to successfully reproduce Atlantic pillar coral in human care in 2019. The conservation effort developed by The Florida Aquarium and its partners enables the sexual reproduction of coral to occur entirely outside of the ocean using LED lighting and computer control systems.

In 2022, Germann announced The Aquarium’s first major expansion to include new animal habitats since it opened in 1995. The $45 million capital project includes the creation of the Mosaic exhibit gallery, the conversion of the second-floor lobby into a multi-species gallery that features puffins; a new, large-scale outdoor exhibit featuring California sea lions for the first time on the west coast of Florida; and a state-of-the-art African penguin habitat. The first phase of the expansion was completed in June 2023 with the opening of MORPH’D, a temporary exhibit featuring 18 species from around the world. The entire project will be completed in 2025 or early 2026.

Germann also has worked to broaden The Aquarium’s role in the Tampa Bay community. Under his direction The Aquarium has established partnerships with other Tampa Bay institutions, including Tampa General Hospital’s pediatic cancer center, Feeding Tampa Bay, Junior Achievement, LeRoots Urban Farm and J.C. Newman Cigars. The Aquarium launched a community engagement program that welcomes participants from underserved communities to dive underwater for free.

Civic Life
Beyond his work at The Florida Aquarium, Germann has served in broader leadership roles in the Tampa Bay region. He served a one-year term in 2017 as a member of the board of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, which cultivates public/private partnerships to facilitate economic development. In 2019, Germann became a board member and then advisor to Species360, whose mission is to advance species conservation efforts worldwide.

Germann currently serves as a board member of Visit Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Sports Commission, Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, and Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce. Germann is also a member of the board of directors of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

In 2019, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis named Germann to the 13-member governing board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District. He also served on Gov. DeSantis’ Transition Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.

German was named to the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Power 100, which recognizes the most influential business people in the Tampa Bay Region.

Personal life
Germann is married to Laura Zaremba and they have two children.