Board of Directors

Board Officers

Chairman of the Board

Hillel “Hal” Cohn

Hal has been a member of the Roundhouse Board since 2004 and handles many of its legal needs.

Born and raised in New England, Hal developed his love of the ocean during childhood summers spent at his grandmother’s home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He and his wife Jenny enjoyed raising their two sons by the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and the boys were regular visitors to the Roundhouse.

Hal is Senior of Counsel and a former partner in the Corporate Department of Morrison & Foerster LLP, a national law firm based in San Francisco. His practice focuses on securities law, corporate governance and financial regulatory matters. Over the years, he has been actively involved with a number of civic groups, including the American Heart Association and the Manhattan Beach Little League.

With its expanded resources, Hal is looking forward to helping the Roundhouse deepen its integration with our local community and extend its educational mission throughout Southern California.

Board Secretary

Judge Richard Fruin

Dick was one of the founders of the Roundhouse Marine Teaching Center in 1979. As a young lawyer, he filed the original papers establishing Oceanographic Teaching Stations (OTS), the non-profit that operates the Aquarium. For over 40 years, he has continued as a Director and Officer of OTS.

In city government, he was the first Chair of the Manhattan Beach Public Works Commission and served on the Planning Commission. In the health field, Dick was twice elected to the Board of Directors of Beach Cities Health District and was instrumental in leasing its hospital facilities to fund health programs in the three beach cities. He also served nine years on the Board of Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center.

Dick is a graduate of UC Berkeley Law School, and since 1995, he has served as a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court. He has written a book and numerous articles on judicial subjects.

With his wife, Pat, he has lived in Manhattan Beach since 1970. They have two sons and four grandchildren.

Board Treasurer

Owen Murray

Owen is a Retired Partner and was the Market Leader for the Forensic
Services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Los Angeles, California and in Tokyo from
2005 to 2009. Owen has a wide variety of international consulting experience and
expertise, with a focus on forensic investigations, contract compliance and various disputes.
In his role he had significant experience working with various C suite clients and Boards on
high profile matters.

He was with PwC for 29 years, 11 of which have been in Los Angeles, 4 in Tokyo, and the
remaining in San Diego and Philadelphia. Owen has served as an Arbitrator, a court
appointed referee on accounting issues and has assisted in many disputes related to
damages and accounting issues. He has testified in both United States Federal and State
Court as an expert witness on a number of occasions. He has been a speaker, both inside
and outside PwC, on many occasions, addressing forensic accounting, FCPA, and licensing
issues.

He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Marine Corps Reserves, where he served on Active
Duty from 1985 to 1991 and in the reserves from 1991 to 2006 in various locations. He led
PwC’s Veterans group for Southern California from 2009 to 2020.

Board Members

Robin Curren

Accomplished Executive with a successful history working in the apparel, footwear, and nonprofit industries. Experience in Executive Management, Marketing, Sales, Communications, Public Relations, Fundraising, Event Production, Community Engagement. Robin currently serves as the Executive Director of the Skechers Foundation and the Harrison Greenberg Memorial Foundation.

Lynne Gross

Lynne started as a volunteer at the Aquarium in February 2009 and joined the Board that July. She served as President from 2014 to 2016.

In 2007 she retired from a 45-year career that revolved around TV production, both as a college professor and practitioner. Among her positions were Vice Chair of the Communications Department at California State University, Fullerton and Director of Programming for Valley Cable TV.

Her TV producer credits include a 45-program music series for public broadcasting; she has written 12 textbooks about media; she has consulted in many countries including Australia, Malaysia, Russia and Swaziland; and she has received numerous outstanding educator awards. Her past volunteer work included Governor of the TV Academy and President of the Broadcast Education Association.

With her husband Paul, she has lived in Manhattan Beach since 1961 and raised three sons. It was her love of the ocean and her trips to the Aquarium with her grandchildren that inspired her to start volunteering. She is particularly interested in encouraging young people to consider science-oriented careers.

Martha Tapias-Mansfield

Martha Tapias-Mansfield has twenty plus years of business and fundraising experience during which she has managed a number of businesses and sales organizations—including The Los Angeles Times, Univision, Telemundo, Fox Sports and USC. I attribute my success in my ability to lead. She has a proven track record of establishing measurable goals, and assembling and motivating the right team of people to achieve them.

Matt Friedman

Matt served as president of the Board of Directors for the OTS/Roundhouse Aquarium from 2004 through 2013. He led the all-volunteer Board to a financially stable organization and helped extend the educational reach beyond the city of Manhattan Beach. He continues to be particularly interested in strategic planning.

Matt has been a resident of Manhattan Beach since 1978 following the completion of his undergraduate degree at Occidental College in Math, Science and Music. He then began work at MCA Universal, IBM and Pioneer Electronics developing new interactive visual technologies though 2003. Since then Matt has been a consultant with Eagle Rock Entertainment focusing on producing music concert films, restoring historical archives and developing artist and management relations.

Matt first began as a volunteer at the Roundhouse in the summer of 2003 and continues to support the OTS mission to connect visitors and students to the ocean and inspire them to have a positive impact on the environment.

Richard Montgomery

Richard P. Montgomery / Council Member – City of Manhattan Beach, California

From 2005 to 2013, and 2017 to 2024, Mr. Montgomery has served four terms as Mayor and City Council member for the City of Manhattan Beach. Prior to his first election, Mr. Montgomery served as a Planning Commissioner and Chair from 2002 to 2005.

Mr. Montgomery was re-elected in November of 2020 to the Manhattan Beach City Council and is now a council member in his fourth term. After 16 years as a local elected official, he has served as President (2011, 2018 and 2024) of the Independent Cities Association (elected officials from 44 cities throughout Los Angeles and Orange County); as a Director of the Sanitation Districts #5 & #7 in Los Angeles County and Chair of the Small Craft Harbor Commissioner in Marina Del Rey at the appointment of LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

He also served on the Salvation Army Board (South Bay) and on the Board of Grades of Green. He has been on the Beach Cities Toy Drive Board & Manhattan Beach Fireworks Association Board since 2005.

Mr. Montgomery was reappointed to the National League of Cities (NLC) Board of Directors for a two-year term, which includes a seat on the League of CA Cities Board. In addition, Mr. Montgomery is a board member of the Institute for Local Government (ILG) in the State of California and the 2nd Vice President of the Los Angeles World Airports Community Noise Roundtable.

When not attending to city business, Mr. Montgomery is the Government Affairs Manager with OUTFRONT MEDIA advertising company in Los Angeles. His responsibility is to provide government relations support and legislative policy direction with local government and coordinate with state agencies throughout the State of California.

Finally, Mr. Montgomery is a 35-year resident of Manhattan Beach and is also a former police officer from a Southern California agency.

Jessica Vincent

Jessica Vincent, an innovative, passionate, creative-thinking professional with extensive experience in municipal service operations and project management; significant insight in budgeting, integrated marketing, partnerships, and team leadership, is currently an External Affairs Representative at Chevron. Jessica brings experience from previous roles at the City of Manhattan Beach and the City of Newport Beach. She holds a 2003 – 2006 Bachelor of Arts – BA @ California State University, Long Beach.

Michael Greenberg

Michael is the President and Co-founder (with his father) of Skechers USA, headquartered in Manhattan Beach. He has played a vital role in the company’s growth – from the first Skechers shoe store lease in 1992 to the brand’s expansion across Asia.

When his 19-year old son, Harrison, passed away in 2015, Michael chose the Aquarium as a place to honor him. He established the Harrison Greenberg Foundation that funded a major renovation of the Roundhouse, the building at the end of the Manhattan Beach pier that houses the Aquarium. He joined the Board in 2019.

Michael also founded the Skechers Foundation and the annual Skechers Pier to Pier Friendship Walk, which has raised over $13 million for children with special needs and education. He also helped found The Friendship Foundation, a non-profit mentoring organization, and he underwrites several popular Manhattan Beach events including a Halloween pumpkin race and Christmas fireworks.

He moved to Manhattan Beach in 1988 after marrying his high school sweetheart. He has two children, in addition to Harrison.

John Roberts, PhD

John is a retired Professor of Biology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. His primary teaching responsibility was genetics. He served as Biology Department Chair and was Co-founder and Director of the MS in Environmental Sciences Program. Prior to that, he was a Senior Research Fellow at Cal Tech’s Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Corona Del Mar.

He attended UC Santa Barbara for his undergraduate and graduate education. His research focused on evolutionary and ecological genetics, emphasizing marine invertebrates, reptiles, and bacteria. He has been on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Academy of Sciences since 1999, and has served as President, Vice President, and Secretary.

He and his wife, Diane, have lived in Manhattan Beach since 2004; they have three children and four grandchildren, who attend local schools. His goal on the Roundhouse Board is to promote the Aquarium as a community resource for information and education; this includes sponsorship of public lectures on issues of current interest in marine science.

Cynthia Yilmaz

Cynthia Yilmaz, SHRM-SCP brings over 25 years of human resources and organizational leadership experience to the Roundhouse Aquarium Board. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President of HR with Unilever, leading major transformation initiatives across the company’s Health & Wellbeing Global Business Unit. Prior to that, she held executive HR roles at SmartyPants, Pressed Juicery, and Tender Greens, where she built high-performing teams and established people-first cultures that dramatically improved employee engagement and retention.

As the founder of PeopleHive, Cynthia provides strategic HR consulting to organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Her firm specializes in building sustainable people strategies that balance empathy with accountability – values that align closely with the Roundhouse’s mission of education equity and community engagement. Cynthia is passionate about creating access to learning opportunities for all and is committed to supporting the Roundhouse’s vital work in marine science education.

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