Berkeley, CA, November 1, 2006 - The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is pleased to announce that Ed Prohaska has been appointed deputy director and chief operating officer. Prohaska comes to BAM/PFA from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where he is chief operating officer and chief financial officer. He will begin at BAM/PFA in January 2007.

As deputy director and chief operating officer, Prohaska will be responsible for strategic planning, implementation of institutional plans, and accreditation, as well as the development and management of BAM/PFA's $7.5 million operating budget. In addition, he will manage the institution's capital building project budget. Currently, BAM/PFA is in the quiet phase of a major campaign to raise funds to build a new facility, which will be located at the western entrance to the University of California, Berkeley campus, close to downtown Berkeley. BAM/PFA recently announced that internationally acclaimed architect Toyo Ito has been chosen to design this new facility.

Prohaska's other responsibilities include overseeing BAM/PFA's information technology, human resources, visitor services, operations, security, and business and income-generating operations, and, with the senior management team, participating in institutional planning and policy making.

"I am extremely pleased to welcome Ed to BAM/PFA," says Kevin E. Consey, director. "His extensive experience working with museums and non-profit institutions, which spans more than a decade, makes him an ideal addition to our team as we continue the exciting and challenging process of planning for our new building."

"I am delighted to be joining BAM/PFA at this important and incredibly promising moment in its history," says Ed Prohaska. "This is a great opportunity for the museum and film archive to channel its long tradition of excellence into creating a model university museum for the twenty-first century."

Prohaska joined the non-profit Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2002. There he provides oversight for finance, accounting, information services, sales, merchandising, food service, and facilities. Prior to working at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Prohaska served as chief operating officer for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, and director of finance and administration of the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California. Before starting his work with museums, Prohaska spent ten years in corporate banking and public accounting, and became a CPA. He has a Masters degree in history, and a Masters of Business Administration, both from the University of Texas, Austin.

About BAM/PFA
BAM/PFA is the visual arts center at the nation's leading public university, the University of California, Berkeley. One of the largest university art museums in the United States in both size and attendance, BAM/PFA engages audiences on campus, in the Bay Area community, and beyond, presenting consistently innovative and challenging perspectives on art and film from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds.

BAM/PFA is recognized internationally as a center for excellence in the presentation of visual art. Innovative and intellectually rigorous, the museum exhibition program presents new perspectives on historical and contemporary art and artists from around the world, as well as important emerging artists, often in their first U.S. exhibitions. The museum's collection of more than 15,000 objects includes exceptional examples of mid-twentieth-century painting, including important works by Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Other significant strengths include historical and contemporary Asian art; early American painting; Conceptual and contemporary international art; and California and Bay Area art.

The Pacific Film Archive became a curatorial department of the museum in 1970, and has since become one of the nation's most respected and comprehensive film exhibition, collection, and study centers. Internationally recognized for its commitment to increasing the understanding and appreciation of the art of cinema, PFA's exhibition program surveys films in critical, cultural, and historical contexts, frequently including in-person conversations with filmmakers, authors, and scholars. The PFA film and video collection now includes the largest group of Japanese films outside of Japan, as well as impressive holdings of Soviet silents, West Coast avant-garde cinema, seminal video art, rare animation, Central Asian productions, Eastern European cinema, and international classics. PFA is actively engaged in film preservation, with a focus on endangered works of experimental film and video.