Jim Gohary, managing director and chief financial officer of the California Academy of Sciences, abruptly resigned this week, The Standard has learned. Gohary declined to disclose the reason for his resignation but said it was “unexpected.”
The resignation comes at a difficult time for Cal Academy, which has been battling growing financial obstacles and labor unrest for years.
Last year, the museum laid off 38 employees. Union workers at Cal Academy entered into negotiations with management in February for their first contract after voting to unionize in July 2023. In interviews, employees have described an atmosphere of low morale and frustration over program and staff cuts.
In April, Cal Academy lost $367,000 in federal grants after President Donald Trump’s executive order nixed funds for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Science Foundation. A spokesperson for Cal Academy said at the time that the museum had been awarded at least 18 federal grants in total, representing potential losses of more than $3.2 million.
Like most museums and cultural institutions, Cal Academy has been struggling with attendance since the pandemic.
In 2019, attendance at Cal Academy reached an all-time high of 1.3 million visitors, according to an annual report by San Francisco Recreation and Parks. In 2023, it welcomed more than 1 million for the first time since the pandemic. Scott Sampson, the executive director, received a $145,000 bonus for the year, according to IRS filings. However, as of June 2024, attendance remained 8% below pre-pandemic levels, according to Science magazine.
Gohary had been at Cal Academy for a little more than a year. Before starting there in January 2024, he led a team responsible for driving enterprise financial management and strategy development at financial firm MSCI. Prior to that, he spent eight years with the International Finance Corporation, a private arm of the World Bank Group, where he served as regional head of equity and long-term debt investments for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
When The Standard contacted Cal Academy spokesperson Ronna Kelly for comment Friday, she said she could not provide information because it was also her last day at the museum. She declined to provide a reason for her departure.