Philanthropist Melanie Lundquist has been named to the AltaSea Board of Trustees as progress on the ambitious marine science campus continues in San Pedro, the organization recently announced.
And earlier this year, AltaSea tapped Geraldine Knatz, former executive director of the Port of Los Angeles — who initially raised and promoted the concept during her POLA years from January 2006 to January 2014 — to lead the board.
Knatz, who also helped create the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan while heading up the Port of LA, became board chairwoman in January.
Terry Tamminen, AltaSea president and CEO, hailed Lundquist’s addition as key to the work being done to find ocean-related solutions to climate change in the fields of business, science and education.
“AltaSea has attracted some of the most incredible, forward-thinking and innovative leaders to our board,” Tamminen said.
Lundquist was named Philanthropist of the Year in 2019 by the Los Angeles Business Journal. She and her husband, Richard, are the second-largest donors to AltaSea behind the Annenberg Foundation.
They are also the namesakes for another South Bay research organization, the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation in West Carson. The Lundquist Institute, formerly named LA BioMed, is an independent nonprofit research organization that conducts hundreds of studies a year. It has more than 500 peer-reviewed articles published in medical and scientific journals annually, according to its website.
The nonprofit renamed itself the Lundquist Institute in 2019 after the philanthropists donated $70 million, with Melanie Lundquist saying at the time that the facility was undertaking “critical work.”
She was also wowed by AltaSea, according to a written statement released by the San Pedro organization.
“What impresses me is how AltaSea connects research to action in the fight against climate change,” Lundquist said.
Tamminen, the state’s former Environmental Protection Agency secretary and a former aide and policy advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also came on board as AltaSea’s new chief executive officer in January.
Knatz, meanwhile, began talking about a maritime research campus in San Pedro years ago.
“Geraldine has played a critical role in helping AltaSea create focal points of collaboration and expand its mission,” Tamminen said. “Her background as a respected leader in the global goods movement and her leadership as chair will be vital as we continue making important progress.”
During the past 12 months, AltaSea, 2451 Signal St., near Warehouse One, has secured $24 million in local, state and federal funding commitments and is a finalist for a $32 million U.S. Economic Development Administration federal grant.
It recently opened USC’s Nuzhdin Aquaculture Lab and Holdfast Aquaculture Lab.
“AltaSea’s 35-acre campus devoted to marine and maritime research, education and business entrepreneurialism,” Knatz said, “has an important role to play as Los Angeles helps lead the way in promoting the blue economy.”
AltaSea rolled out in 2013 with plans for a $500 million marine research center. At the time, the campus was expected to take 15 to 20 years to complete.
Plans called for the 35-acre San Pedro campus to feature seawater laboratories, offices, a lecture hall and an interpretive center.
Fundraising proved challenging, but none of that was surprising for a vision that was so expansive, Tamminen said.
Upcoming and current projects include:
- Renovating 180,000 square feet of warehouse space that includes new roofs and solar panels.
- Introducing carbon capturing technology, which the Institute for Carbon Management in UCLA’s Samueli Scholastic’s School of Engineering will bring to AltaSea.
- Implementing a project by Eco Wave Power, an onshore wave energy technology company that developed technology for turning waves into green electricity, with which AltaSea has signed a cooperation agreement.
